Cormac McCarthy, the masterful prose stylist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who plumbed the depths of violence and vengeance in novels such as “Blood Meridian,” “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road,” died Tuesday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
He was 89.
McCarthy’s death was announced in a statement by his publisher, Penguin Random House. The company — citing the writer’s son, John McCarthy — said he died of natural causes.
In language that ranged from brutally austere to dizzyingly complex, McCarthy told tales of the dark side of humanity set against the vivid backdrop of the American West. He wrote all of his novels on a Olivetti Underwood Lettera 32 typewriter, his publisher said.
“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.”