The novels of Cormac McCarthy explore the darkest shadows of human nature, but McCarthy himself had a remarkably conventional childhood. He was born Charles Joseph McCarthy in Providence, Rhode Island, on July 20, 1933. He later changed his name to Cormac, meaning "son of Charles," to honor his father.
The McCarthys moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1937. The elder Charles, a lawyer, took a job with the Tennessee Valley Authority and remained there for the next thirty years. A number of key themes in McCarthy's works—like peregrination, the human affinity for bloodshed, and strained father-son relationships—are indirectly rooted in his formative experiences.
McCarthy grew up Catholic. He...
