Cormac McCarthy, the American author best known for writing Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, and The Road, has passed away. An icon of literature in the United States seven decades, McCarthy died earlier today at home in New Mexico. Publishers Weekly brings word of the author’s death, writing in a tweet: “BREAKING NEWS: Cormac McCarthy, a preeminent voice in American literature over the better part of the past half-century, died today at his home in Santa Fe, N.M., his publisher, Knopf, confirmed. He was 89.”
Born July 20, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island, McCarthy became best known to readers for his specific style of writing, which often included minimal punctuation. Despite having published several novels in the 1960s and 70s, in 1985 he published Blood Meridian, a book that would define him as an author and give him a place in American literature forever. His follow-up, 1992’s All the Pretty Horses, was a major hit, earning him a National Book Award. That book would become the start of a trilogy, continued in The Crossing and Cities of the Plain.
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In the 2000s McCarthy would find another renewed place in literature, publishing 2005’s No Country for Old Men and then 2006’s The Road. Ironically the former was not received as well as the later, but thanks to a feature film adaptation No Country would find renewed interest from readers and critics. There was an extensive gap between The Road and McCarthy’s next novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, a pair of books released a month apart from each other, published in 2022.
In the 2010s McCarthy would make a big change to his style, penning a screenplay that actually got produced. The result was 2013’s The Counselor, a film directed by Ridley Scott starring Michael Fassbender, Penรฉlope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Brad Pitt.
McCarthy’s work has previously been adapted for the big screen a few times. All the Pretty Horses was released in the year 2000 from director Billy Bob Thornton and starring Matt Damon, marking the first feature film based on one of his works. No Country for Old Men was released in 2007 from The Coen Bros. and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem; it would go on to win four Academy Awards including Best Picture. 2009’s The Road was directed by John Hillcoat and starred Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Finally James Franco wrote and directed an adaptation of Child of God in 2013.
(Cover Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage)
