Cormac McCarthy, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of The Road, Dies at 89

American writer Cormac McCarthy has died. He is known for books such as The Road in No Country for Old Men. He died of natural causes at his home in New Mexico, his agent said. McCarthy was 89 years old.

For The Road the author received a Pulitzer Prize in 2007. By No Country for Old Men a successful film adaptation was released in cinemas that same year. His last two books were released in 2022.

McCarthy’s oeuvre is not large. He wrote twelve novels, some plays and screenplays, but his works, most of which have been translated into Dutch, are highly acclaimed. According to some, he belongs in the ranks of great American writers such as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

McCarthy was given the name Charles at birth in 1933. He later changed it to the old Irish name Cormac. He briefly attended the University of Tennessee, but never completed his studies. He did, however, publish his first stories at that time.

McCarthy’s mostly wrote nihilistic and dark stories set in the Wild West or post-apocaliptic worlds. Usually young men are the focus, who travel through deserted areas and are confronted with violence. Consider connoisseurs Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West from 1985 as the author’s pinnacle. The book was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels between 1923 and 2005.

Also in No Country for Old Men from 2005, violence plays an important role. The novel is about a man who is pursued by an assassin. The story was filmed by the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. The film received four Oscars.

McCarthy himself was never seen on the red carpet at major film festivals. He was a very self-absorbed man who hardly ever gave interviews. The exception was a conversation with Oprah Winfrey in 2007. “If you spend a lot of time thinking about a book, you probably shouldn’t think about it,” he told her. “Then you should write it.”