Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy dies at 89
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, known for novels such as The Road, No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian, has died at the age of 89.
News of his passing was broken by his publishers, Penguin Random House, after they were informed by his son, John McCarthy, that he had passed away in Santa Fe early on June 13th.
Fellow writer Stephen King has led tributes, stating: “Cormac McCarthy, maybe the greatest American novelist of my time, has passed away at 89. He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing.”
McCarthy was famously a publicity-shunning author, however, he was brought out into the cultural limelight thanks to his novels being adapted into huge blockbusters such as the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men and The Road starring Hugh Jackman.
Renowned for his brutal yet verbose prose, McCarthy is considered one of the most original voices in modern literature. Works such as Blood Meridian scored him an array of prizes, while the commercial hit The Road brought him to a wider audience.
His first novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published in 1965. He wrote the novel while working part-time in an auto-parts warehouse in Chicago. While this novel drew some critical acclaim, it was a commercial flop, and he struggled financially to sustain himself as a writer.
However, he continued to write, and with the support of his English wife Anne DeLisle – who he met in 1965 and married in ’66 – he was able to secure a Rockefeller Foundation grant that enabled him to continue working as a novelist.
He then worked at a rate of roughly a book every five years, eventually producing 12 full-length novels over the course of his life. He finally found large-scale success with his 1992 effort All the Pretty Horses.
Describing his own brutal philosophy, he commented: “There’s no such thing as life without bloodshed. The notion that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea. Those who are afflicted with this notion are the first ones to give up their souls, their freedom. Your desire that it be that way will enslave you and make your life vacuous.”
This influential outlook has become an important element of modern literature and will define his lasting legacy. He is also survived by his two children.
