Cormac Mccarthy
AGE: 73
OCCUPATION: Novelist, playwright
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: Acclaimed author who is often compared to William Faulkner and Herman Melville and, according to critic Harold Bloom, is one of the four major American novelists of his time. His 2006 novel The Road was recently chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection and was winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize.
CON: His following has always been cultic—his prose often criticized as too violent, morose, pretentious and male-focused.