Cormac McCarthy, Pulitzer-Winning Author of ‘The Road’ and ‘No Country For Old Men,' Dead at 89

Photo:Professor Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Professor Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

Pulitzer-prize winning author Cormac McCarthy, known for his historical dramaBlood Meridianand post-apocalyptic taleThe Road, has died at the age of 89.

McCarthy’ died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his publisherPenguin Random Housesaid in a release. His son, John McCarthy confirmed his death to the publishing company.

McCarthy was born in 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island before moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he grew up. He attended the University of Tennessee where he began to create short fiction and received the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing, per Penguin Random House.

He was known for writing themes about apocalyptic danger, the nature of evil, and the fragility of the human condition, and was often compared to William Faulkner, one of the most significant writers of the early 1900’s period, the publishing company wrote. Many of McCarthy’s novels were set in the backdrop of the American Southwest, and he was known for writing all his novels on an Olivetti Underwood Lettera 32 typewriter.

“Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,” Nihar Malaviya, the CEO of Penguin Random House toldNBC Newsin a statement. “For sixty years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word.”

“Millions of readers around the world embraced his characters, his mythic themes, and the intimate emotional truths he laid bare on every page, in brilliant novels that will remain both timely and timeless, for generations to come,” she continued.

His work spanned six decades after publishing his first novel,The Orchard Keeper, in 1965 at Random House. He followed the book up withOuter Darkin 1986 andChild of Godin 1973. He found critical success withSuttree(1979) and followed it up with one of his best known and successful novelsBlood Meridian(1985).

He then went on to write a series of novels known as “The Border Trilogy,” which included three coming-of-age centered novels published in the 1990’s:All The Pretty Horses,The CrossingandCities of the Plain.

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McCarthy made magic again withThe Roadin 2006, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize the following year and was selected as an Oprah’s Book Club pick.

Before his death, he published two more novels:The PassengerandStella Marisin 2022, both companion novels dealing with faith and science.

source: people.com