Cormac McCarthy, the award-winning author of such novels as All The Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, and The Road, has died at 89, according to a statement from his publisher, Alfred A. Knopf.

The winner of a National Book Award, a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship, McCarthy was widely considered one of the great American fiction writers of his generation, acclaimed for his novels set in the American Southwest.

McCarthy was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1933, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. He attended the University of Tennessee, served four years in the U.S. Air Force, and won the Ingram-Merrill Award for creative writing. His first novel, The Orchard Keeper, was published by Random House in 1965; his longtime editor there was Albert Erskine, who had edited William Faulkner.

Among his other early works were the novels Suttree (1978) and Blood Meridian (1982). Generally favored by critics and other writers, McCarthy became a bestselling author with the publication, between 1992 and 1998, of his Border Trilogy of novels: All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain.

His 2006 novel, The Road, was a change of pace—the dystopian tale of a father and son traveling through a grimly postapocalyptic landscape. It was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her popular book club, and the press-averse novelist gave his only TV interview to her. In a starred review of The Road, a Kirkus critic wrote, “Even within the author’s extraordinary body of work, this stands as a radical achievement, a novel that demands to be read and reread.” (See what Kirkus reviewers had to say about five of McCarthy’s most iconic novels.)

A handful of McCarthy’s works were adapted for the screen, including All the Pretty Horses (2000), starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz; and The Road (2009), starring Viggo Mortenson and Kodi Smit-McPhee. The 2007 film adaptation of No Country for Old Men, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin, won four Academy Awards, including the award for best picture.

McCarthy continued writing to the very end; he published two linked novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, in late 2022. Both books received starred reviews from Kirkus.

“Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,” said Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya, in a statement. “For sixty years, he demonstrated an unwavering dedication to his craft, and to exploring the infinite possibilities and power of the written word. Millions of readers around the world embraced his characters, his mythic themes, and the intimate emotional truths he laid bare on every page, in brilliant novels that will remain both timely and timeless, for generations to come.”

On Twitter, McCarthy’s many readers paid tribute. Novelist Laila Lalami wrote, “Cormac McCarthy’s distinctive voice, his sense of humor, his eye for human folly, and his love of the natural world were apparent in everything he wrote. Flawed, yes. But always, always original.”

And novelist Stephen King tweeted, “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.”

Tom Beer is the editor-in-chief.