The United States Mourns the Loss of a Distinguished Literary Figure

America has bid farewell to one of its literary geniuses. Cormac McCarthy, the esteemed author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road and other critically acclaimed works such as Blood Meridian and All the Pretty Horses, has passed away at the age of 89. According to publisher Alfred A. Knopf, McCarthy died of natural causes on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as reported by the BBC. McCarthy, who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, was often compared to William Faulkner for his evocative, biblical writing style and rural settings, notes the AP.

After relocating to the Southwest in the 1970s, McCarthy’s novels shifted to embrace the region’s atmosphere, resulting in more austere prose that drew comparisons to the renowned Ernest Hemingway, as highlighted by the New York Times. In recent years, many regarded McCarthy as a strong contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature, with critic Harold Bloom ranking him among the four greatest American novelists of his time, alongside Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and Thomas Pynchon. McCarthy achieved further recognition when the Coen Brothers adapted his 2005 novel No Country for Old Men into an Oscar-winning film in 2007. Last year, McCarthy released his first new works since The Road in 2006—linked novels titled The Passenger and Stella Maris.

McCarthy only gained widespread recognition at the age of 60 when All the Pretty Horses became his first bestseller, according to the AP. Despite his growing prominence, he remained reclusive and rarely gave interviews. In a 2007 appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show, McCarthy expressed his belief that interviews were not beneficial to one’s mindset, stating, “If you spend a lot of time thinking about how to write a book, you probably shouldn’t be thinking about it; you should probably be doing it,” as reported by the BBC. Stephen King paid homage to McCarthy by calling him “perhaps the greatest American novelist of my time” and expressing sorrow over his passing in a tweet. (Read more Cormac McCarthy stories.)