American author Cormac McCarthy, known best for his stories "No Country for Old Men," and "All the Pretty Horses," passed away on Tuesday at his home at the age of 89.
McCarthy's cause of death wasn't disclosed but we know he was at his Santa Fe home when he passed away. McCarthy was a prolific writer and three of his biggest stories were translated into major movies.
McCarthy's writings blended elements from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner into a unique style that captured the imagination of readers.
McCarthy was a highly decorated author winning a National Book Award and the Pulitzer. "No Country for Old Men," was also adapted into an Oscar winning film in 2007.
McCarthy's stories were so captivating because of his stories bleak and violent portrayal of the American West.
The Associated Press wrote of McCarthy, "McCarthy, raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, was compared to William Faulkner for his Old Testament style and rural settings. McCarthy’s themes, like Faulkner’s, often were bleak and violent and dramatized how the past overwhelmed the present. Across stark and forbidding landscapes and rundown border communities, he placed drifters, thieves, prostitutes and old, broken men, all unable to escape fates determined for them well before they were born. As the doomed John Grady Cole of McCarthy’s celebrated “Border” trilogy would learn, dreams of a better life were only dreams, and falling in love an act of folly."
Many considered McCarthy to be the greatest Western writer alive, even if others contend that his work couldn't be contained in such a narrow genre.
Regardless of how one categorizes McCarthy's works, it is undeniable that he was a titan of literature.
Nihar Malaviya, the CEO of Penguin Random House, said "Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature. 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."
Despite his writing impact, McCarthy considered it to be but one of his many passions.
In one of his rare interviews in 1992, McCarthy stated, "Of all the subjects I'm interested in, it would be extremely difficult to find one I wasn't. Writing is way, way down at the bottom of the list."
McCarthy published his last two books, titled "The Passenger" and "Stella Maris," in 2022 giving readers one last adventure.
McCarthy was married three times and had two children but kept his private life to himself and was well known for avoiding the spotlight.
McCarthy's passing is another worrying reminder that we are losing a generation of Americans who have witnessed an era unlike any other.
