Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy was originally born as Charles McCarthy but had his name changed to Cormac. He was born on June 20, 1933. He has written a great many novels including "The Road" and "All the Pretty Horses." He has received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. His books have influenced other authors. It is clear that the novels he has published are held in high esteems. In addition to his many good books, there have also been movies made that have added to the entertainment business. Without these works, many great stories would be left unsaid.

Biographical Information
Cormac McCarthy was born in Rhode Island on July 20, 1933. He is the third of six children (the eldest son) born to Charles Joseph and Gladys Christina McGrail McCarthy (he has two brothers and three sisters). In 1937, when he was four, the family moved to Knoxville, and his father became a lawyer for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Cormac was raised Roman Catholic. He attended Catholic High School in Knoxville, then went to the University of Tennessee in 1951-52. His major: liberal arts. McCarthy joined the U.S. Air Force in 1953; he served four years, spending two of them stationed in Alaska, where he hosted a radio show.From 1957-59, McCarthy returned to the university, where he published two stories, "A Drowning Incident" and "Wake for Susan" in the student literary magazine, The Phoenix, calling himself C. J. McCarthy, Jr. While at the university, he won the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing in 1959 and 1960.McCarthy left the university again, this time for good. He went to Chicago, where he worked, apparently as an auto mechanic, while writing his first novel. He later married Lee Holleman, who had been a student at the University of Tennessee, and the couple settled in Sevier County, Tennessee. They had one son, Cullen. Some time later, their marriage ended.In 1965, using this money, he left America on the liner Sylvania, intending to visit the home of his Irish ancestors. While on the trip, he met Anne DeLisle, a young English singer/dancer working on the ship; they were married in England in 1966. Another grant was given McCarthy in 1966, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant (1966-68). He and Anne toured southern England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain. Then they settled on the island of Ibiza, which was a kind of artist's colony at the time. In 1967, though, possibly at Anne's urging, the McCarthys returned to America. They moved to Rockford, Tennessee, a town near Knoxville. Anne DeLisle and Cormac McCarthy were separated in 1976 (no children), and McCarthy moved soon after to El Paso, Texas, where he still lives. They were divorced a few years later. Sometime around the publication of Cities of the Plain, McCarthy married for a third time; he and his wife Jennifer have one child. The McCarthys have also moved from El Paso; they now reside in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Selected Works

 * The Orchard Keeper
 * McCarthy has won the Faulkner prize for "The Orchard Keeper."
 * Outer Dark
 * Child of God
 * Suttree
 * Blood Meridian
 * All the Pretty Horses
 * "All the Pretty Horses" is one of three books known as the border trilogy, the other two are "The Crossing" and "Cities of the Plain."
 * The Crossing
 * Cities of the Plain
 * No Country for Old Men
 * The Road
 * "The Road" is a fictional book that takes place in the future and is very dark. It's a bit of a heavier read but has won McCarthy the Pulitzer Prize.