Cormac McCarthy bibliography

A list of works by or about Cormac McCarthy, the American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. McCarthy published twelve novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and post-apocalyptic genres, as well as multiple short-stories, screenplays, plays, and an essay.

Cormac McCarthy
bibliography

McCarthy in 1973
Novels↙	12
Stories↙	3
Plays↙	2
Essays↙	1
References and footnotes

In 1985, he published Blood Meridian, which received a lukewarm response. The novel has since gained great esteem and is often seen as his magnum opus — some have even labelled it the Great American Novel.^[1]

Novels

#	Denotes an entry in The Border Trilogy	#	Denotes an entry in The Passenger Series

Title	Notes	Publication	ISBN	Ref(s)
The Orchard Keeper		1965	ISBN 0-679-72872-4
Outer Dark		1968	ISBN 0-679-72873-2
Child of God		1973	ISBN 0-679-72874-0
Suttree		1979	ISBN 0-679-73632-8
Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West		1985	ISBN 0-679-72875-9
All the Pretty Horses	Book 1 in the Border Trilogy	1992	ISBN 0-679-74439-8
The Crossing	Book 2 in the Border Trilogy	1994	ISBN 0-679-76084-9
Cities of the Plain	Book 3 in the Border Trilogy	1998	ISBN 0-679-74719-2
No Country for Old Men		2005	ISBN 0-375-70667-4	[2]
The Road		2006	ISBN 0-307-38789-5
The Passenger	Book 1 in The Passenger Series	2022	ISBN 0-307-26899-3	[3]
Stella Maris	Book 2 in The Passenger Series	2022	ISBN 0-307-26900-0	[3]

• First-edition covers of McCarthy's novels
• 
  The Orchard Keeper (1965)
• 
  Outer Dark (1968)
• 
  Child of God (1973)
• 
  Suttree (1979)
• 
  The Road (2006)

Short fiction

Title	Publication	Notes	Text
"Wake for Susan"	1959	[4]
"A Drowning Incident"	1960	[5]
"The Dark Waters"	1965	[6]

Essays

Title	Publication	Subject	Notes	Text
"The Kekulé Problem"	2017	Written for the Santa Fe Institute, it explores the origin of language.	[7]

Screenplays

Title	Publication	ISBN	Link
Cities of the Plain	1978 (Unpublished)
Whales and Men	Late 1980s (Unpublished)
No Country for Old Men	1987 (Unpublished)
The Gardener's Son: A Screenplay	1996 (written in 1976)	ISBN 0-88001-481-4
The Counselor	2013	ISBN 978-1-4472-2764-9

Plays

Title	Publication	ISBN	Link
The Stonemason	1995 (Written in late 1980s)	ISBN 978-0-679-76280-5
The Sunset Limited	2006	ISBN 0-307-27836-0

Dramatic adaptations

Released

Television:

• The Gardener's Son (airdate January 1977) was broadcast as part of a series for PBS. McCarthy wrote the screenplay upon request for director Richard Pearce.^[8] The screenplay was published as a book in 1996.
• An adaptation of McCarthy's play The Sunset Limited (2006) aired on HBO in February 2011, starring Tommy Lee Jones (who also directed) and Samuel L. Jackson.^[9]

Feature films:

• All the Pretty Horses (2000), directed by Billy Bob Thornton, starring Matt Damon and Penélope Cruz. Adapted from McCarthy's 1992 novel.
• No Country for Old Men (2007), Academy Award-winning film directed by the Coen brothers and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem. Adapted from McCarthy's 2005 novel.
• The Road (2009), directed by John Hillcoat and adapted by Joe Penhall.^[10] Starring Viggo Mortensen as the father,^[11] Kodi Smit-McPhee as the boy, Charlize Theron as the wife,^[12] and Robert Duvall as the old man. Adapted from McCarthy's 2006 novel.
• Child of God (2013), co-written and directed by James Franco and premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.^[13] Adapted from McCarthy's 1973 novel.

Short films:

• In 2009, Outer Dark was made into a 15-minute short film (directed by Stephen Imwalle)^[14] released on the U.S. festival circuit.

Rumored

• A film adaptation of Blood Meridian has been rumored for years; James Franco, John Hillcoat, Todd Field, Scott Rudin, and Ridley Scott have been connected at one point or another to the project, which has fallen through at least twice.^[15][16]

Critical studies and reviews of McCarthy's work

• Williams, Joy (January 2023). "Great, beautiful, terrifying : on Cormac McCarthy". Reviews. Harper's Magazine. Vol. 346, no. 2072. pp. 74–78.

See also

• List of awards received by Cormac McCarthy