Tributes Pour in for Author Cormac McCarthy: 'A Loss Beyond Measure'

Tributes poured in for esteemed author Cormac McCarthy following news of his death Tuesday afternoon.

McCarthy, 89, died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his publisher Alfred A. Knopf wrote in a tweet on Tuesday. The announcement quickly drew tributes from authors and other individuals who praised his work, hailed him as an inspiration and shared some of the most famous passages from his books.

McCarthy was a highly acclaimed and awarded author perhaps best known for novels which often incorporated dark themes and apocalyptic landscapes, including All the Pretty Horses, his commercial breakthrough in 1992, and The Road, which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. No Country for Old Men, published in 2005, was made into a movie that won the Best Picture Oscar in 2008.

Publisher Penguin Random House confirmed his death in a statement to Newsweek, describing McCarthy as "one of the world's most influential and renowned writers."

"His career spanned nearly six decades and several genres, including fiction and drama. His work has entered the modern canon and won several prestigious literary awards," the statement reads.

Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House, wrote in the statement that McCarthy "changed the course of literature."

"For 60 years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word. 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," Malaviya wrote.

Author Stephen King tweeted, "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."

Dr. James Dorson, an assistant professor for North American literature at Freie Universität Berlin's John F. Kennedy Institute and leading scholar on McCarthy's works, told Newsweek that although McCarthy is often associated with "the great writers of the past," his influence on modern literature is "equally noteworthy."

"From the recent genre turn in literary fiction to writers you wouldn't normally associate with McCarthy like David Foster Wallace or the Métis writer of young adult fiction Cherie Dimaline, McCarthy's signature combination since the 1980s of a highly literary prose style with plot-driven action has left an indelible mark on the contemporary literary landscape," Dorson said.

"When a great artist dies, there is the moment when the world understands it will never again have a new creation from that mind, that heart, that vast soul. It is a loss beyond measure, but what that soul has left us is a gift beyond time. Rest in everything, Cormac McCarthy," tweeted author Joseph Fasano.

"Nobody wrote about old weird Knoxville like Cormac McCarthy. RIP king," tweeted journalist Katie Myers.

Writer Brendan Hodges wrote: "Cormac McCarthy was one of the great masters of the English language, and few authors could so resonantly wrastle with our unknown place in this lonely, dark universe. The world was richer with him in it. May he rest in peace."

Dianne Luce, the co-founder and past-president of the Cormac McCarthy Society, described him as "easily the most skilled writer of his generation" in a statement to Newsweek.

"He is our unique American voice and vision, a writer who takes on the universal themes of life and death, good and evil, the limits of human understanding, and the tragedy that results inevitably from these aspects of human nature," she wrote.

McCarthy was born in Providence, Road Island, in 1933 and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He published his first novel, The Orchard Keeper, in 1965. Often compared to William Faulkner, McCarthy developed a "dedicated fan base of critics and readers," according to Penguin Random House.

In addition to the Pulitzer, he also won awards including the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

He once told Oprah Winfrey that he did not care how many people read The Road, which went on to win the Pulitzer.

"You would like for the people that would appreciate the book to read it. But, as far as many, many people reading it, so what?" he said, according to the Associated Press.

Update 6/14/23, 9:32 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.

Update 6/14/2023 3:27 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.