Stephen King leads tributes to The Road author Cormac McCarthy: ‘The greatest American novelist of my time’

US author remembered for novels including ‘The Road’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’

Stephen King (left) and Cormac McCarthy (Getty Images)

Tributes have poured in for the late author Cormac McCarthy after his death was announced Tuesday (13 June).

McCarthy, who wrote popular novels including The Road and No Country for Old Men, was 89.

The Rhode Island-born author died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Tuesday (13 June), his publisher confirmed.

McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2006 novel, The Road, a post-apocalyptic tale about a father and son on a gruelling journey of survival.

His 2005 novel, No Country for Old Men, was famously adapted by the Coen brothers into a feature film starring Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin. It went on to win four Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The Shining author Stephen King was among the first to react to McCarthy’s death, tweeting: “Cormac McCarthy, maybe the greatest American novelist of my time, has passed away at 89. He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing.”

Comedian and Ratatouille star Patton Oswalt wrote: “Death was not hilarious today. RIP Cormac McCarthy. A great favourite.”

The Old Ways author Robert MacFarlane tweeted: “Ah… Cormac McCarthy has died today. A giant of a writer, who wrote with a pen of iron, torqued language into new forms & worked the rhythms of prose into wire-flashes of lightning & great rolls of thunder.”

MacFarlane included one of his favourite passages from McCarthy’s 1985 novel, Blood Meridian.

US singer-songwriter Jason Isbell wrote: “I could go onstage and say ‘this next one was influenced by Cormac McCarthy’ and literally sing any song I’ve ever written.”

McCarthy is survived by his two sons, Cullen McCarthy, born in 1962 to his first wife Lee Holleman, and John Francis McCarthy, born in 1999 to his third wife, Jennifer Winkley. He divorced his second wife, Annie DeLisle, in 1981.

He also has a brother, two sisters and two grandchildren.