Cormac McCarthy, the renowned Southern Gothic novelist, passed away at the age of 89 in his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
His publisher, Knopf, confirmed his death to Publishers Weekly.
McCarthy was widely celebrated as one of the most influential novelists of his time, mentioned in the same breath as Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth by literary critic Harold Bloom.
Born in 1933 in Rhode Island, McCarthy spent his formative years in Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father, Charles Joseph McCarthy, worked as a lawyer. He attended the University of Tennessee before dropping out in 1959. He was briefly married to Lee Holleman and they had a child named Cullen.
In 1965, McCarthy published his debut novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” incorporating themes that would reappear in his later works, such as father-son relationships, dark Southern settings, and biblical allusions.
During a trip abroad, McCarthy met his second wife, Anne Delisle, and wrote his second book, “Outer Dark.” They lived together in Tennessee before separating in 1976. McCarthy then relocated to El Paso, Texas, where he received a MacArthur Fellowship and penned his most renowned novels, including “Blood Meridian” and “All the Pretty Horses,” which won the National Book Award.
After moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his third wife, Jennifer Winkley, and their son, John, McCarthy was inspired to write “The Road” during a visit to El Paso in 2003. He later revealed in an interview with Oprah that the novel was influenced by his relationship with his son. Winkley and McCarthy eventually divorced.
“The Road” went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a film. McCarthy’s novel “No Country for Old Men” was also turned into a movie by the Coen brothers, whose work the author had explicitly praised.
After a 16-year hiatus, McCarthy released two interconnected novels in late 2022: “The Passenger” in October and “Stella Maris” in December.
McCarthy was known for his intensely private nature, leaving very little information about his personal life. The Cormac McCarthy Society’s website stated, “Except for a few odds and ends (his favorite novel is Melville’s Moby-Dick; he doesn’t care for the work of Henry James, he doesn’t like to talk about writing, etc.), that’s more or less what we know about Cormac McCarthy.”
Indeed, his body of work stands as his most impressive legacy.
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