The great American writer Cormac McCarthy, who found success late in life thanks to his emblematic novels such as So pretty horses or The Road, died Tuesday at the age of 89 of natural causes, announced his publisher.
Chronicler of Appalachian America and the dark and cruel “Wild West”, McCarthy, whose novels were adapted by Hollywood (No Country for old men) and who won a prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road, died at him in Santa Fe, New Mexico, publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced. “His death was confirmed by his son, John McCarthy,” it said.
Born Charles McCarthy on July 20, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island (northeast), this author of 12 novels “was one of the most renowned and influential writers on the planet”, hailed Penguin Random House . McCarthy has won several prestigious awards in the United States, including a Pulitzer for The Road in 2007, which recounts the wanderings of a father and a son in a country ravaged by a cataclysm of unknown origin.
However, he did not win the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,” Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya said in the statement. While the novelist found success late in life, “millions of readers around the world have embraced his characters, his mythical themes, and the intimate, genuine emotions he embodied on every page in brilliant novels that will live on.” both current and timeless for generations to come,” wrote its publisher.
First to react, literary giant Stephen King bowed on Twitter to “perhaps the greatest American novelist of [his] time”.
Cormac McCarthy, maybe the greatest American novelist of my time, has passed away at 89. He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing.
And rock musician Jason Isbell also wondered on Twitter “how many of us were influenced” by McCarthy? “An immeasurable number. Reclusive and detached from material constraints – he lived for a long time in seedy motels – Cormac McCarthy granted only a handful of interviews to the media.