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A Legacy Revisited
by Tracy Daugherty
A biography of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Cormac McCarthy, from Tracy Daugherty, the New York Times bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist biography Larry McMurtry: A Life.
Cormac McCarthy is hailed as one of America's greatest novelists, often compared to Melville and Faulkner, and his epic western Blood Meridian is widely considered a masterpiece of historical fiction. In his body of work, the nation's story is told in incomparably vivid shades of violence, greed, and love.
Early in life, McCarthy chose to devote himself almost exclusively to his literary pursuits. Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited movingly details what this choice cost him in his family relationships, his marriages, and his friendships. Mentally and physically restless, often solitary and yet gregarious and charming, McCarthy lived as wildly, complexly, and close to the bone as any of his characters, journeying often to remote locations, communing deeply with the natural world, and traversing intricate emotional and psychological terrain. In his novels, he reported wisdom hard-learned through harsh experience and intense observation. With precision and grace, Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited recounts his story from poverty to riches, obscurity to worldwide acclaim, and is a must-read for both lifelong fans and new McCarthy readers alike.
"A revealing biography of the enigmatic Southwest literary sage... Daugherty balances the elements of McCarthy's peculiar genius with well-reported portraits of him as a private yet adventurous figure... A well-told story." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Tracy Daugherty, well on his way to establishing himself as the best literary biographer of the 21st century, has made an extraordinary capture of one of American literature's most elusive subjects. In the case of Cormac McCarthy, to show the man beside the myth, distinguishing one from the other with such impeccable clarity, is truly a striking achievement. McCarthy was a skillful self-mythologizer, whose efforts along those lines have been amplified for decades by teams of devotées obsessed with the man through his work. Daugherty shows us plainly what parts of the myth (a good many) were in fact true, while uncovering many more fascinating and improbable facts of McCarthy's career that never made it into the myth at all. The whole of the life story revealed here will be enough and plenty to satisfy (and sometimes dismay) McCarthy's readership. And Daugherty's take on McCarthy's body of work is just as thorough, just as sound, and sometimes just as surprising." ―Madison Smartt Bell, author of Child of Light
"The enigma revealed. Tracy Daugherty's biography of one of our most mysterious and iconic novelists reads like a novel itself in all its darkness, adventure, loss and redemption. One of the most thrilling biographies I've ever come across." ―T.C. Boyle, bestselling author
This information about Cormac McCarthy was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Born and raised in Texas, Tracy Daugherty (he/him) is the author of over ten novels and short story collections, a memoir, a book of personal essays, a collection of essays on writing, a novella collection, and several literary biographies. His 2009 biography of Donald Barthelme, Hiding Man, was a New York Times and New Yorker Notable Book, and his 2015 biography of Joan Didion, The Last Love Song was a New York Times Bestseller. His work has been recognized by the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. At Oregon State University he helped found the MFA Program in Creative Writing.
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