Cormac McCarthy, author of Blood Meridian, dies at 89
Literary icon Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men, dies of natural causes at age 89 at his Sante Fe home
Cormac McCarthy, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in American history, has passed away at the age of 89.
McCarthy passed away Tuesday at his home in Sante Fe, New Mexico, his publisher Knopf confirmed.
A statement said: “Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy died of natural causes today at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was eighty-nine years old. His death was confirmed by his son, John McCarthy.’
Cormac McCarthy attends the HBO Films & The Cinema Society screening of Sunset Limited at Porter House on February 1, 2011 in New York City
Fellow author Stephen King led online tributes on Twitter: “Cormac McCarthy, perhaps the greatest American novelist of my time, has passed away at the age of 89.
“He was full of years and has built up a beautiful body of work, but I still mourn his passing.”
McCarthy was known for Western and apocalyptic novels like “The Road,” “Blood Meridian,” and “No Country for Old Men,” which were adapted by the Coen brothers into an Academy Award-winning film of the same name.
His other accolades include a National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for “All the Pretty Horses.”
In 2009, he became the second author, after Philip Roth, to receive the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for lifetime work in American fiction.
He explored themes of desperation and tenderness, not shying away from brutal violence.
“If it’s not a matter of life and death,” Mr. McCarthy once told Rolling Stone, “it’s not interesting.”
His novels took readers through the vast landscapes of the United States, from the deserts of the Southwest to the forests of Tennessee, even the gloom of a post-apocalypse world.