Cormac McCarthy (89) dies: No Country for Old Men and The Road author and Pulitzer Prize winner passes away

Author Cormac McCarthy has died aged 89, his agent has confirmed. He’s arguably best known for his novels such as The Road and No Country For Old Men and also won a Pulitzer Prize. He died of natural causes.

McCarthy was notorious for being a private man throughout his career, and reportedly didn’t like to discuss his work. His first novel, The Orchard Keeper, was released in 1965 and he went on to release many more throughout the 70s.

Twenty years after releasing his first novel, Blood Meridian was released and is believed to be a turning point in his career and is generally regarded as his finest work, closely followed by Suttree which was released six years earlier.

Blood Meridian is set in the American frontier era, and, dedicated to his craft, it’s reported that McCarthy travelled all the places detailed in the novel and even learned Spanish to help with his research.

Seven years after releasing Blood Meridian, McCarthy got his big break with All The Pretty Horses, which was the first volume of The Border Trilogy. The book became a New York Times bestseller and sold 190,000 copies in hardback within the first six months of publication.

Another of his novels, No Country For Old Men, was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Javier Bardem. The Road was also adapted for film, starring Viggo Mortensen, with McCarthy winning a Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2007.

Fellow author, Stephen King, said: “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.”