"The Road" is a 2006 dystopian novel by the American writer Cormac McCarthy. The novel won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. The was well received critically and featured in Oprah Winfrey's Book Club. The novel revolves around a father and his son who are only … [Read more...] about The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy was born Charles McCarthy on July 20th, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island. One of six children, he and his family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee when he was only four years old so that his father could begin a new job as a lawyer. McCarthy attended a Catholic high school and was an alter boy at his family's church. He went on to attend the University of Tennessee but never fully graduated. It was while he was in college that he was published for the first time. Two of his short stories were published in a magazine called 'The Phoenix' and he was given the Ingram Merrill Award for his writing in 1959 and 1960.
It was during this time that he decided to change his name to Cormac for his writing career to avoid association with ventriloquist Edgar Bergan's famous dummy Charlie MacCarthy. In 1961, he married another student named Lee Holleman and the two had a son together the next year. That year, Cormac asked Lee to get a job so that he could focus on his writing and she was so upset with him that she left him, filing for divorce. Cormac has since married two more times and had one more son.
In 1965, he published his first novel, "The Orchard Keeper" which received good reviews. The following year he received a Rockefeller grant which he then used to travel around Europe. In Ibiza, he wrote his second novel. 'Outer Dark' was published in 1968 after which he returned to America. In 1969, Cormac moved to a barn in Louisville, Tennessee which he then began renovating himself. It was here that he wrote his third book, "Child of God" (1973).
After separating from his second wife, Cormac moved to Texas and finally published a novel that he had been working on for the past 20 years called "Suttree" (1979). In 1981, he received another grant and wrote his next novel. Cormac did not receive widespread literary recognition until 1992 with the publishing of his novel "All The Pretty Horses" which won the National Book Award.
In the early 2000's, Cormac published two of his most well known novels. "No Country For Old Men" (2005) and "The Road" (2006) were both very well received critically and later adapted into successful films, "No Country" receiving several Academy Awards. Cormac is currently working on three new novels at his home near Santa Fe, New Mexico.