Legendary author of “Blood Meridian,” “The Road” and “All the Pretty Horses,” Cormac McCarthy, passed away on Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the age of 89.
The famed American author died of natural causes, according to his publisher, Penguin Random House.
“Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,” Nihar Malaviya, the CEO of Penguin Random House, said in 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,” Malaviya said. “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.”
McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Road,” as well as the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.
“McCarthy’s style and thematic preoccupations drew from disparate influences, ranging from the haunting Southern Gothic prose of William Faulkner to the lyrical intricacy of James Joyce and the fire-and-brimstone intensity of Scripture,” wrote NBC News.
His 1985 masterpiece “Blood Meridian,” which is a horrifically violent epic about bloodthirsty bounty hunters, is considered by many to be his crowning achievement.
Other books he wrote, such as “No Country for Old Men,” 2005, gained acclaim after its initial release.
The film adaptation of the book directed by the Cohen Brothers won four Academy Awards, including best picture.
“Death is the major issue in the world. For you, for me, for all of us,” he said during an interview with Vanity Fair. “It just is. To not be able to talk about it is very odd.”