Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Cormac McCarthy dies at 89

Cormac McCarthy, whose nihilistic and violent tales of the American frontier and post-apocalyptic worlds led to awards, movie adaptations and sleepless nights for his enthralled and appalled readers, died on Tuesday at the age of 89. Little known for the first 60 years or so of his life, rapturous reviews of 1992's "All the Pretty Horses" - the first in "The Border Trilogy" - changed all that. His first book "The Orchard Keeper," set in rural Tennessee and published in 1965, landed with Faulkner's last editor, who recognized the young writer's potential. But despite positive reviews - and some shocked reaction - for this and other early works like "Child of God" and "Outer Dark," commercial success eluded McCarthy and he scraped by on writers' grants. "All the Pretty Horses," a coming-of-age book that kicked off a trilogy centered around Texas ranch hands at the close of the frontier, finally brought him acclaim in the 1990s.