The Knock at the Door

Fame comes calling on Cormac McCarthy, but he's hiding out in order to write his violent, exquisite novels

When Cormac McCarthy's sixth novel, All the Pretty Horses, won the National Book Award last year, journalists naturally wanted a word with the author. McCarthy possesses a lifelong habit of refusing questions, however. As a Texas lawyer buddy says, "He solicits publicity like a man evading process." A prestigious literary honor did nothing to change his mind; for that matter, he didn't go pick up the award. It made for a good story all the same. Here was a man with a fine hand with the language and a clear scope on the darkness out there, an impoverished artist on the...

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