orig. Charles McCarthy, Jr.
born July 20, 1933, Providence, R.I., U.S.
U.S. novelist.
He grew up in Tennessee and dropped out of the University of Tennessee to join the Air Force. He began writing in 1959. His novels, known for their natural observation, morbid realism, and violence, are in the Southern gothic tradition. They include The Orchard Keeper (1965), Outer Dark (1968), Blood Meridian (1985), and the widely read Border Trilogy ( All the Pretty Little Horses , 1992; The Crossing , 1994; Cities of the Plain , 1999).