There are few things stranger than reading a highly anticipated new book — in this case, Tracy Daugherty’s biography “Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited” (St. Martin’s Press, Oct. 6) — only to find yourself cited in it.
asserted
yourself → be → it
My admittedly slight contribution to the afterlife of McCarthy was to have written an article in 2024 that asked, after various unsavory revelations concerning his private life appeared, “Is Cormac McCarthy finished?”
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McCarthy → write → life
I concluded that those bombshells were only the beginning of a bizarre and unpleasant story that would only become more bizarre and unpleasant — all of which could consign the literary titan to the reputational trash can.
uncertain
all → conclude → can
Daugherty’s unenviable task in “Cormac McCarthy” is to gaze inside that metaphorical trash can.
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task → gaze → can
That Daugherty succeeds in producing a measured, insightful account of a man who once said he found discussion of his life “embarrassing” is impressive.
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discussion → succeed → life
Certainly, McCarthy did his best to convince everyone around him not to delve too deeply into his misdemeanors.
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McCarthy → do → misdemeanors
Daugherty writes that “McCarthy discouraged interviewers hoping to probe his personal life by telling them that his novel ‘Child of God’ (1973), the story of a murdering necrophiliac, was ‘semi-autobiographical.’ ”
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novel → write → necrophiliac
As one friend said of him, “He didn’t give a damn.
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He → say → damn
He lived life on his own terms — more so than anyone I have ever known.”
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I → live → anyone
This uncompromising, often selfish existence had its origins in a tough childhood.
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existence → have → childhood
McCarthy’s father, Charles, was physically abusive to him and his brother Bill, and his mother suffered from fragile mental health that often saw her confined to mental institutions.
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her → suffer → institutions
When he saw Cormac’s drinking and wild youthful behavior, he wrote him a note: “To see you wasting your magnificent talents and rushing headlong into a life of unhappiness seems to tear me up inside and prevents me from using the same intelligence that I could use if you were someone I cared nothing about.”
uncertain
I → see → that
Man hands on misery to man.
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Man → hand → man
McCarthy shrugged.
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McCarthy → shrug → ?
“You grow up in the South,” he reflected later in life, “you’re going to see violence.”
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you → grow → violence
“I felt early on I wasn’t going to be a respectable citizen,” the author wrote.
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author → feel → ?
He set about proving this from early in his literary career, in a slightly self-conscious, even stagey fashion.
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He → set → fashion
It was typical of McCarthy that his second published short story, “A Drowning Incident,” revolved around puppies being drowned, indicating a lifelong adherence to unpleasantness that permeated his work.
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that → publish → work
Being cruel to those who loved him was a vital part of this pose.
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who → love → pose
Just before his first novel, “The Orchard Tree,” was published, McCarthy’s first wife Lee snapped at him: “You don’t act as if you want a wife and baby.
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you → publish → wife
You act as if you want to be single again.”
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you → act → ?
McCarthy “gazed across the valley” and said, “I guess that’s right.”
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that → gaze → valley
When his wife left him and said she wasn’t sure what to do for money, her soon-to-be ex-husband suggested, “Be a whore.”
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husband → leave → money
The McCarthy myth — “a man who’d abandoned his wife and child so he could write” — began there.
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he → abandon → wife
He did much throughout his life to confirm it.
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He → do → it
In Daugherty’s words, McCarthy “was determined to preserve his intelligence and most of his energy for writing fiction.”
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McCarthy → preserve → fiction
This did not prevent him from a reputation as a lecher.
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This → prevent → lecher
McCarthy was known as a “hound” and none of his friends’ wives were safe from his advances.
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none → know → advances
This devilry exploded spectacularly a year after he died, when a Vanity Fair article alleged that McCarthy had a long affair with a 16-year-old girl, Augusta Britt, when he was in his 40s.
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he → explode → 40s
He altered Britt’s biographical details to make her seem of legal age.
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her → alter → age
As Britt commented: “There’s nothing more romantic than watching a man forge your birth certificate.”
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man → comment → certificate
McCarthy’s nickname for Britt was “Babushka,” shortened to “Baba,” and a friend of his called her a “wild-ass hippie girl.”
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friend → shorten → her
Their relationship continued in on-and-off forms until McCarthy died, although it was never remotely monogamous or committed on the part of the novelist.
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it → continue → novelist
Daugherty is good on McCarthy’s initially faltering literary career, and skillfully hints that the success of his highly acclaimed later novels, including “The Border Trilogy” and “No Country for Old Men,” stemmed as much from blanket marketing by his confident publishers at Knopf as from any lasting brilliance.
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success → falter → brilliance
McCarthy had little commercial success for years, with his 1979 autobiographical novel “Suttree” receiving poor reviews and posting equally dismal sales.
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novel → have → sales
Many around McCarthy, including established writers such as Larry McMurtry and Ralph Ellison, nonetheless believed in him, and so he was awarded a MacArthur prize — a so-called genius grant — of $236,000 that enabled him to write “Blood Meridian.”
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that → include → Meridian
That book was similarly a commercial flop, but it has grown massively in stature since it was published in 1985.
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it → grow → 1985
In any case, he needed the money.
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he → need → money
McCarthy said that his living conditions in El Paso were “unfit for human company,” and also remarked that he had been a professional writer for 23 years without ever receiving a royalty check.
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he → say → check
As is usual with literary biography, the narrative becomes less interesting when McCarthy becomes a wealthy household name after the publication of “All the Pretty Horses” in 1992, which sold 190,000 copies.
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which → become → copies
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
