Cormac McCarthy Stumps in Florida

The quantum mechanics of last novels.

Vincenzo Barney

21 April 2023

Review of The Passenger, Stella Maris published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House

In memory of Cormac Roth who told me the first night we met at Bennington that he was named after Cormac McCarthy.

Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century / “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”

Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s Secret Muse Breaks Her Silence After Half a Century: “I Loved Him. He Was My Safety.”

When he was 42, Cormac McCarthy fell in love with a 16-year-old girl he met by a motel pool. Augusta Britt would go on to become one of the most significant—and secret—inspirations in literary history, giving life to many of McCarthy’s most iconic characters across his celebrated novels and Hollywood films. For 47 years, Britt closely guarded her identity and her story. Until now.

Vincenzo Barney
NOVEMBER 20, 2024

I’m about to tell you the craziest love story in literary history. And before you ransack the canon for a glamorous rebuttal, I must warn you: Its preeminence is conclusive. Dante and Beatrice, Scott and Zelda, Véra and Vladimir. All famous cases of literary love and inspiration, sure. But these romances lack the 47-year novelistic drama of the craziest story. They lack the stolen gun, the border crossings, the violation of federal law. They lack the forged birth certificate and clandestine love letters. But above all, they lack the leading lady: the secret muse.