Texas school nets Cormac McCarthy papers

A central Texas university has purchased the archives of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Cormac McCarthy.

The Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University, San Marcos announced the archive purchase last week. University president Denise Trauth described McCarthy's papers as "the crown jewels of our literary treasury."

A room at the school's Alkek Library is being earmarked specifically for the McCarthy papers, of which an archivist is currently taking inventory.

The $2 million US purchase was steered by collection co-founder Bill Wittliff, a screenwriter and photographer who said he began discussing such a deal with the author decades ago.

"I actually started talking to Cormac McCarthy about this 21 years ago, when [my wife] Sally and I founded the Southwestern Writers Collection," he said.

Last fall, McCarthy told Wittliff he was ready.

"I think he's the greatest living American writer," Wittliff said. "I think Cormac McCarthy is one of the immortals."

According to school officials, the funding for the purchase came from private donors as well as from a university fund earmarked for library collection acquisitions.

The 74-year-old author has increasingly been in the spotlight over the past few years with the publication of his latest award-winning novel The Road — which won the Pulitzer Prize and was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her popular TV book club — as well as the recent, acclaimed film adaptation of his 2005 book No Country for Old Men, directed by the Coen Brothers.

Considered one of the greatest living novelists in the U.S., the reclusive, Knoxville, Tenn.-raised McCarthy is widely hailed for his dark, powerful tales.

The author's archives will feature literary papers documenting his more than 40-year long writing career, including letters, notes, drafts and proofs from each of his 11 novels, a draft of an unfinished novel, materials related to his 1994 play The Stonemason and several screenplays.

The Southwestern Writers Collection has also garnered right of first refusal to purchase all future materials related to McCarthy's work.

Also housed in the collection are the production archives of the Lonesome Dove miniseries and the animated TV show King of the Hill as well as the archives of writers such as Sam Shepard.