Some of author Cormac McCarthy’s most famous books include “All the Pretty Horses” and “The Road.” In fact, Oprah Winfrey even selected “The Road” for her book club, and he repaid her by granting her an interview, the only TV interview he ever did or ever will do.

McCarthy’s publisher at Penguin Random House, Alfred A. Knopf, has announced that McCarthy has died at the age of 89 years old. The cause of death was natural causes.

McCarthy’s writing career spanned almost 60 years. For many of those years, he mainly lived on grants including the McArther “genius grant.”

While his career was long-lasting, it was later in his career that he and his books because famous, partly because of Winfrey and partly because of film adaptations of some of his books such as “No Country for Old Men.” The film adaptation ended up winning four Academy Awards including the “Best Picture” award.

McCarthy was born Charles McCarthy Jr. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1933, but his family relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was young, and that’s where he grew up. 

He once told the New York Times Book Review that his family was “considered rich” because they lived in a big white house and had maids while most of the people who lived nearby has “one or two room shacks.”

If you think it’s essential to have a love for reading at an early age in order to grow up to be a great writer like McCarthy, that’s not necessarily true. It wasn’t until McCarthy dropped out of the University of Tennessee and joined the U.S. Air Force that he gained a love for reading. He was stationed in Alaska at the time.

McCarthy’s very first novel, “The Orchard Keeper” was published in 1965. The novels that followed were “Outer Dark,” “Child of God,” and Suttree.”

McCarthy was married twice, but both marriages ended in divorce. He is survived by his son John from his first marriage.

Learn more about McCarthy in this video where he sat down with Winfrey for his one and only television interview.

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