Cormac McCarthy's works revel in the 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.
His family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1937. His father, a lawyer, took a job with the Tennessee Valley Authority legal staff, and remained with the TVA for the next thirty years. Although his childhood biography lacks any particularly traumatic or violent events, a number of key themes in McCarthy's works--travel, the human affinity for bloodshed, and father-son...
