About
Cormac McCarthy, born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr. in Providence, Rhode Island, and raised near Knoxville, Tennessee, is a major American writer. After studying at the University of Tennessee and serving in the U.S. Air Force, he published his first novel, The Orchard Keeper, in 1965. Reclusive and minimalist, he wrote on an Olivetti typewriter and explored violence, fate, and the American landscape. Notable works include Blood Meridian (1985), The Border Trilogy, No Country for Old Men (2005), and The Road (2006), which won the Pulitzer Prize. He died in 2023 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
* 1933-07-20 — † 2023-06-13
Major works
- The Orchard Keeper (1965)novel
- Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West (1985)novel
- All the Pretty Horses (1992)novel
- No Country for Old Men (2005)novel
- The Road (2006)novel
Key milestones
- 1981Awarded a MacArthur Fellowship (often called a 'genius grant').
- 2007The Road wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
- 2012Elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Themes
violencefateAmerican landscapesurvivalgood and evil
Sources: catdir.loc.gov · pulitzer.org · nationalbook.org