Cormac McCarthy’s Remarkable Connections to El Paso & New Mexico

Legendary novelist Cormac McCarthy died at the age of 89 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

His death was confirmed by his family and later his publisher.

"Cormac McCarthy changed the course of literature,' Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House said 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."

But did you know that he spent many years living in El Paso?

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is best known for ‘No Country for Old Men’ which he wrote in 2005.

That novel was adapted into an Oscar-winning film produced by the Coen Brothers.

McCarthy also wrote 'The Road,' 'Blood Meridian' and 'All the Pretty Horses.'

But you'll have to go way back to 1976 when McCarthy made his move to El Paso. He spent almost 20 years living here.

And it was El Paso that inspired what ended up becoming 'The Road' when it was published in 2006.

He told The Guardian in a 2009 interview: "Four or five years ago, my son (John, then aged three or four) and I went to El Paso, and we checked into the old hotel there. And one night, John was asleep, it was probably about two in the morning, and I went over and just stood and looked out the window at this town. There was nothing moving but I could hear the trains going through, a very lonesome sound. I just had this image of what this town might look like in 50 or 100 years."

He said he went on to write two pages and four years later he realized that those two pages was worth a book.

That book, 'The Road,' won McCarthy the Pulitzer prize.

How about that El Paso connection for one of the greatest novelists to ever live?