How education and upbringing influenced the life of Cormac McCarthy. A timeline of key moments.
Cormac McCarthy was a celebrated American author known for his novels spanning Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Gothic genres. Characterized by graphic violence and a distinctive writing style featuring sparse punctuation and attribution, his works have secured his reputation as one of the greatest American novelists. He authored twelve novels, alongside plays, screenplays, and short stories.
In 1930, Jim Long, McCarthy's childhood friend and later inspiration for J-Bone in Suttree, was born.
On July 20, 1933, Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., later known as Cormac McCarthy, was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
On July 20, 1933, Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr. was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
In 1937, McCarthy's family relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, where his father worked as a lawyer.
By 1941, the McCarthy family had settled in a house on Martin Mill Pike in South Knoxville.
In 1951, McCarthy began attending the University of Tennessee, studying liberal arts.
In 1953, McCarthy left college to join the U.S. Air Force.
In 1957, McCarthy returned to the University of Tennessee, majoring in English and publishing stories in the student literary magazine.
After 1958, McCarthy began using a mechanical typewriter for all his literary work and correspondence.
In 1959, McCarthy won the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing and dropped out of college, leaving for Chicago.
In 1961, McCarthy married fellow student Lee Holleman and moved to a shack in the Smoky Mountains.
In 1962, McCarthy and Lee Holleman had a son named Cullen.
In the summer of 1965, McCarthy traveled to Ireland using a Traveling Fellowship award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 1969, McCarthy and his wife Anne DeLisle moved to Louisville, Tennessee, and purchased a dairy barn.
According to Richard B. Woodward, McCarthy quit drinking in 1976 in El Paso, with one of his young girlfriends.
In 1976, McCarthy separated from Anne DeLisle and moved to El Paso, Texas.
In 2006, McCarthy and Jennifer Winkley divorced.
In December 2009, McCarthy's Olivetti Lettera 32 typewriter was auctioned at Christie's for $254,500, with proceeds donated to the Santa Fe Institute. He replaced it with an identical model.