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Books Are Made Out of Books: A Guide to Cormac McCarthy's Literary Influences
A “comprehensive and enlightening” study of Cormac McCarthy’s literary influences, based on newly acquired archival materials (Times Literary Supplement).Though Cormac McCarthy once told an interviewer for the New York Times Magazine that “books are made out of books,” he has been famously unwilling to discuss how his own writing draws on the works of other writers. Yet his novels and plays masterfully appropriate and allude to an extensive range of literary works, demonstrating that McCarthy is well aware of literary tradition, respectful of the canon, and deliberately situating himself in a knowing relationship to precursors.The Wittliff Collection at Texas State University acquired McCarthy’s literary archive in 2007. In Books Are Made Out of Books, Michael Lynn Crews thoroughly mines the archive to identify nearly 150 writers and thinkers that McCarthy himself references in early drafts, marginalia, notes, and correspondence. Crews organizes the references into chapters devoted to McCarthy’s published works, the unpublished screenplay Whales and Men, and McCarthy’s correspondence. For each work, Crews identifies the authors, artists, or other cultural figures that McCarthy references; gives the source of the reference in McCarthy’s papers; provides context for the reference as it appears in the archives; and explains the significance of the reference to the novel or play that McCarthy was working on. This groundbreaking exploration of McCarthy’s literary influences—impossible to undertake before the opening of the archive—vastly expands our understanding of how one of America’s foremost authors has engaged with the ideas, images, metaphors, and language of other thinkers and made them his own.
357 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 5, 2017
About the author
Michael Lynn Crews
1 bookMichael Lynn Crews is an assistant professor of English at Regent University. He specializes in American and contemporary literature.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 29, 2023
For the McCarthy fanatic elucidating to see some of his literary influences, those "appropriations, borrowings, thefts." Without this reference book I had recognized many on my own but this is a tremendous resource.
***
Friends, on the first Tuesday of the month I send out a short newsletter with updates on my novel-in-progress, a glimpse of one writer's life in small-town coastal Tofino, and a link to the month's free eBooks of various authors. It’s my privilege to stay connected to those who appreciate my work. If interested, and to receive a free copy of Immortal North, please sign up here: www.luckydollarmedia.com
***
Friends, on the first Tuesday of the month I send out a short newsletter with updates on my novel-in-progress, a glimpse of one writer's life in small-town coastal Tofino, and a link to the month's free eBooks of various authors. It’s my privilege to stay connected to those who appreciate my work. If interested, and to receive a free copy of Immortal North, please sign up here: www.luckydollarmedia.com
January 27, 2019
One of the best books on Cormac McCarthy's work I've ever read. If you're a fan, this is definitely worth reading. Also, until I read this book, I wasn't aware of this fascinating quote from McCarthy's unproduced screenplay Whales and Men: “Darwinism explains the mechanism of an elaborate system and then burins [Though The Oxford English Dictionary does not document an example of the word being used this way, McCarthy appears to be referring to a “burin,” a tool used for engraving on metal.] the inventor’s name from the patent plates. It is a belief system, ultimately. Its adherents tend to militancy. They brook no contradiction. And their theory is unprovable in principle. You can’t rewind the universe and run it over again. Scientific proofs are reproducible proofs, that’s what makes them science isn’t it? Darwinism dismisses the captain and puts the stoker at the helm. The conjugations of chance that it demands to fill its schedule beggar belief. In the end it explains nothing but itself.”
November 17, 2023
This is one of the books I recommended to read after Blood Meridian. Check out the video here: 9 Books To Read If You Like Blood Meridian
May 15, 2022
Crews is brilliant in understanding metaphysics, literature and Cormac - he does the legendary subject matter justice and then some. A little repetitive in places, but I didn't mind one whit. He has done this man and all of us a wondrous service.
I learned of this from an unlikely source, a Facebook page of this author’s fans. Having finally completed all the published books by McCarthy, he remains my favorite living author. I note he will turn 90 next year, making him a year older than another major influence on my life, my father-in-law. It is truly a special time, a blessing, in fact, that these two men exist, and their unique brains and creations are still available to me. I know it won’t last long, and I wonder myself if I can carry that fire in the horn on the saddle of the horseman passing the son as told in No Country for Old Men (which I still find the most accessible). Perhaps these men, whose bodies must surely be a hindrance to them today, represent for me the dual conflicts in my own psyche, on one side a worried but hopeful optimist, the other deeply pessimistic with instincts of hope. My worry is that I will migrate to the more negative pole as my own body gives way to the obliteration of time, and I won’t be able to find that strength and peace that is so elusive. I have hope that I’m more like my kin, married 65 years and not like the thrice divorced hero of this book. But I digress.
The title of this book is from a McCarthy quote, acknowledging that all great novels derive to some extent from what has come from before. I’ve read that there are only a handful of true “stories”, narratives that readers will read by animating the imagination. The author of this nonfiction book posits that McCarthy, like Twain, pretends in public to be not well-read, but in reality are the opposite and during their lifetime like to obscure this fact (be it pride so their originality is not questioned or simply to keep the mysteries of their creation close so as not to be robbed). McCarthy’s favorite book is Moby Dick, apparently, so that explains in part why I like this author so much. Being my favorite writer, Cormac’s process of writing and sampling words from disparate sources (scientific, religious, rather ordinary fiction) and reorganizing and incorporating into his own words was fascinating. He is interested in science, and the natural world, which I would have guessed and resonates with my own scientific training.
McCarthy worked on these few novels he wrote for long periods of time, including significant overlap of times writing Suttree and Blood Meridian, the latter often considered his magnum opus. But both books started out very differently and, according to Crews, were quite inferior to the final product. For example, the “western” style of Blood Meridian was much more a raucous and bawdy western tale in early iterations, before it conceived of the deadly serious Mephistopheles-like Judge Holden – surely one fo the most terrifying and interesting characters in the history of literature. I found little kinship with Suttree, which I loved for the old Knoxville River life tales. But now that I understand how long these embryos were nourished, and how many iterations they went through, it made sense. Unfortunately, I read Suttree too early in my McCarthy journey, I know I would love it more now.
I have a delightful personal discovery on reading this book, that Bill Wittliff acquired in 2007 McCarthy’s papers for the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University. Bill was already quite famous as a screenwriter, including the Lonesome Dove series. This triggered my memory of a professor of biochemistry at the University of Louisville, Jim Wittliff, who turns out to be his brother. I recall him talking about his “artistic” brother back in 1984 when I was getting my biochemistry graduate degree. I even visited Knoxville (U Tenn) before choosing U of L for my degree – so I have a few degrees of separation to Cormac (he has graced my dreams from time to time but that doesn’t count). He’s an enigmatic author, and his melancholy soul has produced such wondrous musings and dichotomies, he has marked me as a reader and human being. My favorites are Sunset Limited and The Counselor – the latter seems to be the least popular, but it resonates with me, especially when the protagonist bargains for the life of his wife. He’s committed the unpardonable sin (I’m surprised the catholic Cormac got this protestant guilt thing so perfectly) and his doomed bargaining is beyond tragic. And I can’t think of a better debate about God and Christianity than in the Sunset Limited (CM must surely be the White character). His unpublished Whales and Men (he gives props to Barry Lopez and Edward Abby his buddies, who I also respect)>
With the 2 novels coming out in Dec, this book couldn’t have been more timely. Can’t see what our 88 year old hero can produce & what’s been in slow ferment and how it manifests in distilled purity. Mine are on order.
I learned of this from an unlikely source, a Facebook page of this author’s fans. Having finally completed all the published books by McCarthy, he remains my favorite living author. I note he will turn 90 next year, making him a year older than another major influence on my life, my father-in-law. It is truly a special time, a blessing, in fact, that these two men exist, and their unique brains and creations are still available to me. I know it won’t last long, and I wonder myself if I can carry that fire in the horn on the saddle of the horseman passing the son as told in No Country for Old Men (which I still find the most accessible). Perhaps these men, whose bodies must surely be a hindrance to them today, represent for me the dual conflicts in my own psyche, on one side a worried but hopeful optimist, the other deeply pessimistic with instincts of hope. My worry is that I will migrate to the more negative pole as my own body gives way to the obliteration of time, and I won’t be able to find that strength and peace that is so elusive. I have hope that I’m more like my kin, married 65 years and not like the thrice divorced hero of this book. But I digress.
The title of this book is from a McCarthy quote, acknowledging that all great novels derive to some extent from what has come from before. I’ve read that there are only a handful of true “stories”, narratives that readers will read by animating the imagination. The author of this nonfiction book posits that McCarthy, like Twain, pretends in public to be not well-read, but in reality are the opposite and during their lifetime like to obscure this fact (be it pride so their originality is not questioned or simply to keep the mysteries of their creation close so as not to be robbed). McCarthy’s favorite book is Moby Dick, apparently, so that explains in part why I like this author so much. Being my favorite writer, Cormac’s process of writing and sampling words from disparate sources (scientific, religious, rather ordinary fiction) and reorganizing and incorporating into his own words was fascinating. He is interested in science, and the natural world, which I would have guessed and resonates with my own scientific training.
McCarthy worked on these few novels he wrote for long periods of time, including significant overlap of times writing Suttree and Blood Meridian, the latter often considered his magnum opus. But both books started out very differently and, according to Crews, were quite inferior to the final product. For example, the “western” style of Blood Meridian was much more a raucous and bawdy western tale in early iterations, before it conceived of the deadly serious Mephistopheles-like Judge Holden – surely one fo the most terrifying and interesting characters in the history of literature. I found little kinship with Suttree, which I loved for the old Knoxville River life tales. But now that I understand how long these embryos were nourished, and how many iterations they went through, it made sense. Unfortunately, I read Suttree too early in my McCarthy journey, I know I would love it more now.
I have a delightful personal discovery on reading this book, that Bill Wittliff acquired in 2007 McCarthy’s papers for the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University. Bill was already quite famous as a screenwriter, including the Lonesome Dove series. This triggered my memory of a professor of biochemistry at the University of Louisville, Jim Wittliff, who turns out to be his brother. I recall him talking about his “artistic” brother back in 1984 when I was getting my biochemistry graduate degree. I even visited Knoxville (U Tenn) before choosing U of L for my degree – so I have a few degrees of separation to Cormac (he has graced my dreams from time to time but that doesn’t count). He’s an enigmatic author, and his melancholy soul has produced such wondrous musings and dichotomies, he has marked me as a reader and human being. My favorites are Sunset Limited and The Counselor – the latter seems to be the least popular, but it resonates with me, especially when the protagonist bargains for the life of his wife. He’s committed the unpardonable sin (I’m surprised the catholic Cormac got this protestant guilt thing so perfectly) and his doomed bargaining is beyond tragic. And I can’t think of a better debate about God and Christianity than in the Sunset Limited (CM must surely be the White character). His unpublished Whales and Men (he gives props to Barry Lopez and Edward Abby his buddies, who I also respect)>
With the 2 novels coming out in Dec, this book couldn’t have been more timely. Can’t see what our 88 year old hero can produce & what’s been in slow ferment and how it manifests in distilled purity. Mine are on order.
March 4, 2025
This book gave me enough new books to read for multiple lifetimes. It's also incredible to see the process of integration and threads of influence woven into each of McCarthy's books through his reading. Definitely something to take away as an aspiring writer—you must read.
Currently Reading
June 29, 2025 Southwestern writers collection series, The Wittliff collections at Texas State University
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: Books Out of Books -- T Is for Texas, T Is for Tennessee: Cormac McCarthy's Literary Journey -- The Wittliff Collection -- Literary Influence and the Novels of Cormac McCarthy -- The Orchard Keeper -- Faulkner, William (1897-1962) [See also The Stonemason] -- Frost, Robert (1874-1963) [See also The Road] -- Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804 -1864) -- Outer Dark -- Camus, Albert (1913 -1960) [See also Whales and Men] -- Child of God -- Hitchcock, Alfred (1899 -1980) -- The Gardener's Son -- Bealer, Alex (1921 -1980) -- Christian, William (b. 1944) -- Dawley, Thomas Robinson (1862 -1930) -- Ginsberg, Allen (1926 -1997) -- Gurdjieff, George (1866 -1949) -- Huxley, Aldous (1894 -1963) -- Joyce, James (1882 -1941) [See also Suttree; in addition, see entries for Joseph Gerard Brennan and Peter De Vries in Suttree] -- McLaurin, Melton Alonza (b. 1941) -- Rapoport, Amos (b. 1929) -- Suttree -- Abbey, Edward (1927 -1989) -- Agee, James (1909 -1955) -- Algren, Nelson (1909 -1981) -- Bellow, Saul (1915 -2005) -- Beowulf (ca. eighth century) [See also Blood Meridian] -- Brennan, Joseph Gerard (1910 -2004) -- Brown, Christy (1932 -- 1981) -- Cooke, Ebenezer (ca. 1667 -- ca. 1732) -- Dante Alighieri (1265 -1321) -- Davidson, Donald (1893 -1968) -- De Vries, Peter (1910 -1993) -- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (1888 -1965) [See also The Road] -- Ericson, Eric B. (dates unknown), and Goesta Wollin (1912 -1995) -- Farrell, James T. (1904 -1979) -- Flaubert, Gustave (1821 -1880) -- Foucault, Michel (1926 -1984) -- Graves, Robert (1895 -1985) -- Hoagland, Edward (b. 1932) -- Hunting in the Old South: Original Narratives of the Hunters (1967) -- Joyce, James (1882 -1941) [See also The Gardener's Son; in addition, see entries for Joseph Gerard Brennan and Peter De Vries in this chapter] -- Jung, Carl Gustav (1875 -1961) [See also entry for Tabula Smaragdina in this chapter] -- Koestler, Arthur (1905 -1983) -- Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di (1896 -1957) -- Lewis, Wyndham (1882 -1957) -- Lissner, Ivar (1909 -1967) -- Mailer, Norman (1923-2007) -- The Malleus Maleficarum (1487) -- Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State (1940) -- Massinger, Philip (1583 -1640) -- Melville, Herman (1819 -1891) [See also The Stonemason and Whales and Men] -- Miller, Henry (1891 -- 1980) [See also Correspondence] -- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533 -- 1592) [See also Whales and Men] -- Nordau, Max (1849 -- 1923) -- Pater, Walter (1839 -- 1894) -- Poe, Edgar Allan (1809 -- 1849) -- Shakespeare, William (1564 -1616) [See also Blood Meridian and The Road] -- Spengler, Oswald (1880 -1936) [See also Wyndham Lewis in Suttree] -- Steele, Wilbur Daniel (1886 -1970) -- Steinbeck, John (1902 -1968) -- Stephenson, Carl (1893 -1954) -- Tabula Smaragdina [See also entry for Carl Gustav Jung in this chapter] -- Thompson, Francis (1859 -1907) -- Trumbo, Dalton (1905 -1976) -- West, Nathanael (1903 -1940) -- Weston, Jessie L. (1850 -1928) -- Wolfe, Thomas (1900 -1938) -- Xenophanes (ca. 570-ca. 478 BCE) [See also Heraclitus in Blood Meridian] -- Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West -- Beowulf (ca. eighth century) [See also Suttree] -- Boehme, Jacob (1575 -1624) [See also Eugen Herrigel in this chapter] -- Celine, Louis-Ferdinand (1894 -1961) -- Chaucer, Geoffrey (1343 -1400) -- Collinson, Frank (1855 -1943) -- Conrad, Joseph (1857 -1924) -- Dillard, Annie (b. 1945) -- Dobie, J. Frank (1888 -1964) -- Doughty, Charles Montagu (1843 -1926) -- Durant, Will (1885 -1981) -- Fraser, Julius Thomas (1923 -2010) -- Gard, Wayne (1899 -1986) -- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749 -1832) -- Heller, Joseph (1923 -1999) -- Heraclitus (ca. 535-ca. 475 BCE) [See also Xenophanes in Suttree] -- Herrigel, Eugen (1884 -1955) [See also Jacob Boehme in this chapter] -- James, William (1842 -1910) -- Kierkegaard, Sr̜en (1813 -1855) -- Kinnell, Galway (1927 -2014) -- Krutch, Joseph Wood (1893 -1970) -- McGinniss, Joe (1942 -2014) -- Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844 -1900) -- O'Brien, Tim (b. 1946) -- O'Connor, Mary Flannery (1925 -1964) -- Pirsig, Robert M. (1928 -2017) [See also The Road] -- Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David) (1919 -2010) -- Shakespeare, William (1564 -1616) [See also Suttree and The Road] -- Sri Aurobindo (1872 -1950) -- Tolstoy, Leo (1828 -1910) -- Valery, Paul (1871 -1945) -- Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 -1947) -- Wolfe, Tom (b. 1931) -- The Stonemason -- Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106 -43 BCE) -- Faulkner, William (1897 -1962) [See also The Orchard Keeper] -- Frankl, Paul (1878 -1962) -- Gaines, Ernest J. (b. 1933) -- Galsworthy, John (1867 -1933) -- Genovese, Eugene (1930 -2012) -- Gould, Robert Freke (1836 -1915) -- Herbert, Edward (1583 -1648) -- Langley, Batty (1696 -1751) -- Lesy, Michael (b. 1945) -- Melville, Herman (1819 -1891) [See also Suttree and Whales and Men] -- Northrop, Filmer Stuart Cuckow (1893 -1992) -- Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875 -1926) -- Rosengarten, Theodore (b. 1944) -- Rykwert, Joseph (b. 1926) -- The Crossing -- Gandia, Manuel Zeno (1855 -1930) -- Leopold, Aldo (1887 -1948) -- Cities of the Plain -- Artemidorus (second century CE) -- Bell, John Stewart (1928 -1990) -- Kanner, Leo (1894 -1981) -- Thorndike, Lynn (1882 -1965) -- Williams, James Robert (1888 -1957) -- The Road -- Beckett, Samuel (1906 -1989) -- Defoe, Daniel (1660 -1731) -- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (1888 -1965) [See also Suttree] -- Frost, Robert (1874 -1963) [See also The Orchard Keeper] -- Kierkegaard, Soren (1813 -1855) [See also Blood Meridian] -- London, Jack (1876 -1916) -- Markson, David (1927 -- 2010) -- Martin, Paul (b. 1958) -- Ovsyanikov, Nikita -- Pagels, Heinz (1939 -1988) -- Pirsig, Robert M. (1928 -2017) [See also Blood Meridian] -- Shakespeare, William (1564 -1616) [See also Suttree and Blood Meridian] -- Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens -- 1835 -1910) -- Whales and Men -- Arendt, Hannah (1906 -1975) -- Augustine of Hippo (354 -430) -- Beston, Henry (1888 -1968) -- Borges, Jorge Luis (1899 -1986) -- Camus, Albert (1913 -1960) [See also Outer Dark] -- Cervantes, Miguel de (1547 -- 1616) -- Dyson, Freeman (b. 1923) -- Hemingway, Ernest (1899 -1961) -- Hoffer, Eric (1898 -1983) -- Hyde, Douglas (1860 -1949) -- Jeffers, Robinson (1887 -1962) -- Lopez, Barry Holstun (b. 1945) -- Melville, Herman (1819 -1891) [See also Suttree and The Stonemason] -- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533 -1592) [See also Suttree] -- Moore, George Augustus (1852 -1933) -- Mowat, Farley (1921 -2014) -- Pound, Ezra (1885 -1972) -- Taylor, Gordon Rattray (1911 -1981) -- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1881 -1955) -- Thomas, Dylan (1914 -1953) -- Yeats, William Butler (1865 -1939) -- Correspondence -- Brinnin, John Malcolm (1916 -1998) -- Byron, George Gordon, Lord (1788 -1824) -- Chatwin, Bruce (1940 -1989) -- Clarke, Arthur C. (1917 -2008) -- Davenport, Guy (1927 -2005) -- Graves, John (1920 -2013) -- Hansen, Ron (b. 1947) -- Hardy, Thomas (1840 -1928) -- Kundera, Milan (b. 1929) -- Leone, Sergio (1929 -1989) -- Lowry, Malcolm (1909 -1957) -- McGuane, Thomas (b. 1939) -- Miller, Henry (1891 -1980) [See also Suttree] -- Ondaatje, Michael (b. 1943) -- Scarry, Elaine (b. 1946).
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-321) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: Books Out of Books -- T Is for Texas, T Is for Tennessee: Cormac McCarthy's Literary Journey -- The Wittliff Collection -- Literary Influence and the Novels of Cormac McCarthy -- The Orchard Keeper -- Faulkner, William (1897-1962) [See also The Stonemason] -- Frost, Robert (1874-1963) [See also The Road] -- Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804 -1864) -- Outer Dark -- Camus, Albert (1913 -1960) [See also Whales and Men] -- Child of God -- Hitchcock, Alfred (1899 -1980) -- The Gardener's Son -- Bealer, Alex (1921 -1980) -- Christian, William (b. 1944) -- Dawley, Thomas Robinson (1862 -1930) -- Ginsberg, Allen (1926 -1997) -- Gurdjieff, George (1866 -1949) -- Huxley, Aldous (1894 -1963) -- Joyce, James (1882 -1941) [See also Suttree; in addition, see entries for Joseph Gerard Brennan and Peter De Vries in Suttree] -- McLaurin, Melton Alonza (b. 1941) -- Rapoport, Amos (b. 1929) -- Suttree -- Abbey, Edward (1927 -1989) -- Agee, James (1909 -1955) -- Algren, Nelson (1909 -1981) -- Bellow, Saul (1915 -2005) -- Beowulf (ca. eighth century) [See also Blood Meridian] -- Brennan, Joseph Gerard (1910 -2004) -- Brown, Christy (1932 -- 1981) -- Cooke, Ebenezer (ca. 1667 -- ca. 1732) -- Dante Alighieri (1265 -1321) -- Davidson, Donald (1893 -1968) -- De Vries, Peter (1910 -1993) -- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (1888 -1965) [See also The Road] -- Ericson, Eric B. (dates unknown), and Goesta Wollin (1912 -1995) -- Farrell, James T. (1904 -1979) -- Flaubert, Gustave (1821 -1880) -- Foucault, Michel (1926 -1984) -- Graves, Robert (1895 -1985) -- Hoagland, Edward (b. 1932) -- Hunting in the Old South: Original Narratives of the Hunters (1967) -- Joyce, James (1882 -1941) [See also The Gardener's Son; in addition, see entries for Joseph Gerard Brennan and Peter De Vries in this chapter] -- Jung, Carl Gustav (1875 -1961) [See also entry for Tabula Smaragdina in this chapter] -- Koestler, Arthur (1905 -1983) -- Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi di (1896 -1957) -- Lewis, Wyndham (1882 -1957) -- Lissner, Ivar (1909 -1967) -- Mailer, Norman (1923-2007) -- The Malleus Maleficarum (1487) -- Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State (1940) -- Massinger, Philip (1583 -1640) -- Melville, Herman (1819 -1891) [See also The Stonemason and Whales and Men] -- Miller, Henry (1891 -- 1980) [See also Correspondence] -- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533 -- 1592) [See also Whales and Men] -- Nordau, Max (1849 -- 1923) -- Pater, Walter (1839 -- 1894) -- Poe, Edgar Allan (1809 -- 1849) -- Shakespeare, William (1564 -1616) [See also Blood Meridian and The Road] -- Spengler, Oswald (1880 -1936) [See also Wyndham Lewis in Suttree] -- Steele, Wilbur Daniel (1886 -1970) -- Steinbeck, John (1902 -1968) -- Stephenson, Carl (1893 -1954) -- Tabula Smaragdina [See also entry for Carl Gustav Jung in this chapter] -- Thompson, Francis (1859 -1907) -- Trumbo, Dalton (1905 -1976) -- West, Nathanael (1903 -1940) -- Weston, Jessie L. (1850 -1928) -- Wolfe, Thomas (1900 -1938) -- Xenophanes (ca. 570-ca. 478 BCE) [See also Heraclitus in Blood Meridian] -- Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West -- Beowulf (ca. eighth century) [See also Suttree] -- Boehme, Jacob (1575 -1624) [See also Eugen Herrigel in this chapter] -- Celine, Louis-Ferdinand (1894 -1961) -- Chaucer, Geoffrey (1343 -1400) -- Collinson, Frank (1855 -1943) -- Conrad, Joseph (1857 -1924) -- Dillard, Annie (b. 1945) -- Dobie, J. Frank (1888 -1964) -- Doughty, Charles Montagu (1843 -1926) -- Durant, Will (1885 -1981) -- Fraser, Julius Thomas (1923 -2010) -- Gard, Wayne (1899 -1986) -- Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749 -1832) -- Heller, Joseph (1923 -1999) -- Heraclitus (ca. 535-ca. 475 BCE) [See also Xenophanes in Suttree] -- Herrigel, Eugen (1884 -1955) [See also Jacob Boehme in this chapter] -- James, William (1842 -1910) -- Kierkegaard, Sr̜en (1813 -1855) -- Kinnell, Galway (1927 -2014) -- Krutch, Joseph Wood (1893 -1970) -- McGinniss, Joe (1942 -2014) -- Nietzsche, Friedrich (1844 -1900) -- O'Brien, Tim (b. 1946) -- O'Connor, Mary Flannery (1925 -1964) -- Pirsig, Robert M. (1928 -2017) [See also The Road] -- Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David) (1919 -2010) -- Shakespeare, William (1564 -1616) [See also Suttree and The Road] -- Sri Aurobindo (1872 -1950) -- Tolstoy, Leo (1828 -1910) -- Valery, Paul (1871 -1945) -- Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 -1947) -- Wolfe, Tom (b. 1931) -- The Stonemason -- Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106 -43 BCE) -- Faulkner, William (1897 -1962) [See also The Orchard Keeper] -- Frankl, Paul (1878 -1962) -- Gaines, Ernest J. (b. 1933) -- Galsworthy, John (1867 -1933) -- Genovese, Eugene (1930 -2012) -- Gould, Robert Freke (1836 -1915) -- Herbert, Edward (1583 -1648) -- Langley, Batty (1696 -1751) -- Lesy, Michael (b. 1945) -- Melville, Herman (1819 -1891) [See also Suttree and Whales and Men] -- Northrop, Filmer Stuart Cuckow (1893 -1992) -- Rilke, Rainer Maria (1875 -1926) -- Rosengarten, Theodore (b. 1944) -- Rykwert, Joseph (b. 1926) -- The Crossing -- Gandia, Manuel Zeno (1855 -1930) -- Leopold, Aldo (1887 -1948) -- Cities of the Plain -- Artemidorus (second century CE) -- Bell, John Stewart (1928 -1990) -- Kanner, Leo (1894 -1981) -- Thorndike, Lynn (1882 -1965) -- Williams, James Robert (1888 -1957) -- The Road -- Beckett, Samuel (1906 -1989) -- Defoe, Daniel (1660 -1731) -- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns) (1888 -1965) [See also Suttree] -- Frost, Robert (1874 -1963) [See also The Orchard Keeper] -- Kierkegaard, Soren (1813 -1855) [See also Blood Meridian] -- London, Jack (1876 -1916) -- Markson, David (1927 -- 2010) -- Martin, Paul (b. 1958) -- Ovsyanikov, Nikita -- Pagels, Heinz (1939 -1988) -- Pirsig, Robert M. (1928 -2017) [See also Blood Meridian] -- Shakespeare, William (1564 -1616) [See also Suttree and Blood Meridian] -- Twain, Mark (Samuel Langhorne Clemens -- 1835 -1910) -- Whales and Men -- Arendt, Hannah (1906 -1975) -- Augustine of Hippo (354 -430) -- Beston, Henry (1888 -1968) -- Borges, Jorge Luis (1899 -1986) -- Camus, Albert (1913 -1960) [See also Outer Dark] -- Cervantes, Miguel de (1547 -- 1616) -- Dyson, Freeman (b. 1923) -- Hemingway, Ernest (1899 -1961) -- Hoffer, Eric (1898 -1983) -- Hyde, Douglas (1860 -1949) -- Jeffers, Robinson (1887 -1962) -- Lopez, Barry Holstun (b. 1945) -- Melville, Herman (1819 -1891) [See also Suttree and The Stonemason] -- Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de (1533 -1592) [See also Suttree] -- Moore, George Augustus (1852 -1933) -- Mowat, Farley (1921 -2014) -- Pound, Ezra (1885 -1972) -- Taylor, Gordon Rattray (1911 -1981) -- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1881 -1955) -- Thomas, Dylan (1914 -1953) -- Yeats, William Butler (1865 -1939) -- Correspondence -- Brinnin, John Malcolm (1916 -1998) -- Byron, George Gordon, Lord (1788 -1824) -- Chatwin, Bruce (1940 -1989) -- Clarke, Arthur C. (1917 -2008) -- Davenport, Guy (1927 -2005) -- Graves, John (1920 -2013) -- Hansen, Ron (b. 1947) -- Hardy, Thomas (1840 -1928) -- Kundera, Milan (b. 1929) -- Leone, Sergio (1929 -1989) -- Lowry, Malcolm (1909 -1957) -- McGuane, Thomas (b. 1939) -- Miller, Henry (1891 -1980) [See also Suttree] -- Ondaatje, Michael (b. 1943) -- Scarry, Elaine (b. 1946).
December 3, 2023
For thesis. Wonderful resource. I am especially interested in the connection between McCarthy’s Tennessee novels and modernist film techniques. Will return.
Want to Read
December 20, 2017Michael earned his Ph.D. from Baylor in 2014. I knew his wife, Denise, better than I knew Michael. In 2018 I joined Michael as English faculty at Regent University.
Harold bloom blurbed the book. I'm sure that was one of the highlights of Dr. Barcus's (and probably Michael's) career. Dr. Barcus died about two years after Michael graduated (Feb. 2016).
Harold bloom blurbed the book. I'm sure that was one of the highlights of Dr. Barcus's (and probably Michael's) career. Dr. Barcus died about two years after Michael graduated (Feb. 2016).
June 28, 2019
Largely discursive, I'll give props to any book that points me to several other books I wasn't familiar with, within the first fifty pages.
This is striking less "Anxiety of Influence" and more "CONFIDENCE of the Influence", regarding Cormac McCarthy's use."
Just a bit awe-inspiring AND intimidating regarding McCarthy's references, control and use of other literary works.
This is striking less "Anxiety of Influence" and more "CONFIDENCE of the Influence", regarding Cormac McCarthy's use."
Just a bit awe-inspiring AND intimidating regarding McCarthy's references, control and use of other literary works.
June 17, 2021
An outstanding resource for any lover of Cormac McCarthy. Outstanding.
December 30, 2024
Cormac McCarthy typed his manuscripts on an old Olivetti typewriter and made handwritten notes as to the sources of his inspiration. He was extremely well read, and if he came across a description or saying that struck him, he would work into his own stories. His style of writing is gothic westerns with allegorical themes about good vs evil. His main characters are also wanderers who are inherently good and must struggle against the evil they encounter on their travels. McCarthy was influenced by Melville, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Camus, Foucault with the French existential ism having the most significant impact. This book was fascinating to me as the author did a tremendous job of parsing McCarthy’s notes and cross referencing them with the texts. I enjoyed seeing mention of some writers l also admire such as Texan John Graves and travel writer Bruce Chatwin. What was telling also were writers that were absent from his list of influences such as Larry McMurtry.
December 20, 2023
An exhaustive look at McCarthy's stated influences based upon personal notes present in the archive of the author's papers, this gives wonderful insight into McCarthy's writing process, particularly how he processes interesting imagery that he finds in other work and uses them as inspiration for his prose. Some sections are more detailed than others, and although the work is generally well-organized, occasionally Crews will take an entry under one work and expound at length about how it relates to an earlier or later work, which when it appears is quite jarring. Nevertheless, the information itself is quite valuable, and if you are looking into critical assessments of McCarthy's writing, this is one of the better and more novel additions.
August 24, 2024
An absolute must read for McCarthy fans.
pg 10;'One thing we learn from a study of influence is that critics do not approach reading in the same way that an artist does, or at least not in the way the artist Cormac McCarthy does.'
Checkout the podcast Reading McCarthy with Scott Yarbrough and guest hosts for an even deeper dive into his novels. https://readingmccarthy.buzzsprout.com
pg 10;'One thing we learn from a study of influence is that critics do not approach reading in the same way that an artist does, or at least not in the way the artist Cormac McCarthy does.'
Checkout the podcast Reading McCarthy with Scott Yarbrough and guest hosts for an even deeper dive into his novels. https://readingmccarthy.buzzsprout.com
June 21, 2026
Part reddit / part other. Interesting read as a McCarthy completist. Helps connects some dots on where Charlie was trying to re-tell a situation/improve on a prior work, explore an alt route, or just plain stole.
Read
January 9, 2020Very instructive and revelatory based on archived material.
May 5, 2023
Invaluable resource for McCarthy scholars and devotees
August 7, 2023
Erudite
December 12, 2024
Really really fascinating. No book has given me more insight on how constructing/revising a novel actually works.
Did Not Finish
March 16, 2026Way too much money to read this snooze fest
February 19, 2024
Though this book is essentially Crews' field notes and the fruit of his massive research project through the Cormac McCarthy archives, it is far from being dull or tedious. To the contrary, it was a lot of fun to read. Any fan of Cormac McCarthy will enjoy it.
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