''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' is a biannual

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which Scholarly method, scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the ...

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

dedicated to the study of the American author

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American author who wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Got ...

(1933–2023). The journal launched in 2001 as an annual publication of the Cormac McCarthy Society. Since 2015, issues are published on a biannual basis by the

Penn State University Press The Penn State University Press, also known as The Pennsylvania State University Press, is a non-profit publisher of scholarly books and journals. Established in 1956, it is the independent publishing branch of the Pennsylvania State University ...

. After decades in obscurity, McCarthy achieved his first mainstream commercial breakthrough with the bestselling novel '' All the Pretty Horses'' (1992), drawing new attention from critics and scholars. The Cormac McCarthy Society was established in 1993 as a

literary society A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newslet ...

promoting study of his works. The journal originated with papers published online at the society's website before the appearance of its first print edition. Its contents have focused on

of McCarthy's works as well as biographical and historical research on topics related to his life and fiction. The journal has been a major exponent of McCarthy studies since its inception. According to the literary scholar Steven Frye, it developed from "a publication committed to the interests of a small group of like-minded scholars" into "a fully developed professional academic journal, indexed in all major outlets." While there are many academic journals about specific authors, ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' is a rare example of such a journal founded while the author in question was still alive.

Background on early McCarthy studies and the Cormac McCarthy Society

By the 2010s McCarthy had entered the

literary canon The term canon derives from the Greek (), meaning "rule", and thence via Latin and Old French into English. The concept in English usage is very broad: in a general sense it refers to being one (adjectival) or a group (noun) of official, authenti ...

as one of the most highly esteemed American authors of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. However, he did not acquire this stature until relatively late in his writing career. His early works received positive reviews but were virtually unknown outside of a small coterie of academics. Between the publication of his first novel in 1965 until about 1992, he received little critical notice—much less than his major contemporaries (i.e., those born in the 1930s) like

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically accl ...

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

, and

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

. The first in-depth treatment of McCarthy's work was the

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

''The Achievement of Cormac McCarthy'' (1988) by Vereen M. Bell. Then, in 1992, McCarthy had his first major commercial and critical success almost 30 years into his writing career. '' All the Pretty Horses'' became an unexpected bestselling hit, bringing a wave of interest from critics, scholars, and journalists. Most of the first wave of McCarthy scholarship appeared in essay collections published as

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

university press A university press is an academic publishing house specializing in monographs and scholarly journals. They are often an integral component of a large research university. They publish work that has been reviewed by scholars in the field. They pro ...

es. Among the journals that took a consistent early interest in McCarthy's work were ''Southwestern American Literature'', '' Western American Literature'', and ''

The Southern Review ''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes ficti ...

''. In summer 1992, '' The Southern Quarterly'' published an entire issue devoted to McCarthy, and most of the essays collected in the journal were later republished as '' Perspectives on Cormac McCarthy'' by the

University Press of Mississippi The University Press of Mississippi (UPM), founded in 1970, is a university press that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi (i.e., Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Sta ...

. The Cormac McCarthy Society became the central organization for the study of his fiction. The

gathered an informal group of scholars who had attended the first

academic conference An academic conference or scientific conference (also congress, symposium, workshop, or meeting) is an Convention (meeting), event for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their scholarly work. Together with academic jou ...

on McCarthy, which took place October 1993 at

Bellarmine College Bellarmine University ( ; BU) is a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky, UNited States. It opened on October 3, 1950, as Bellarmine College, established by Archbishop John A. Floersh of the Archdiocese of Louisville and named af ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

. Most scholars in attendance came from universities in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

and had overlapping interests in literature of the South, particularly

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

, to whom McCarthy was often compared. Scholars in the Cormac McCarthy Society, however, saw McCarthy as a great author worthy of study in his own right, and sought to counter perceptions that he was influenced by Faulkner to the point of derivativeness. The organization organized further conferences on the author's fiction and became a member group of the

American Literature Association The American Literature Association (ALA) is "a coalition of societies devoted to the study of American authors". It has some 110 affiliated societies, mostly concerned with the work of a particular author (e.g. the Emily Dickinson International ...

in 1998.

Publication history

The Cormac McCarthy Society (1998–2014)

Originally, the journal was published by the Cormac McCarthy Society itself. In January 1997, the McCarthy Society went online at the

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

Cormacmccarthy.com, which had been launched two years prior by the McCarthy enthusiast Marty Priola. Society members began

self-publishing Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the internet, self-published usually depends upon digital platforms and print-on-demand technology, ranging fro ...

scholarly articles on the website by 1998. At this stage, the website's journal section was more of an informal

repository Repository may refer to: Archives and online databases * Content repository, a database with an associated set of data management tools, allowing application-independent access to the content * Disciplinary repository (or subject repository), an ...

for McCarthy scholarship than a regular

periodical Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

. The first print edition of ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' appeared in 2001, with new issues published on a roughly annual basis. The journal joined the

Council of Editors of Learned Journals The Council of Editors of Learned Journals emerged from a series of informal gatherings of editors at the Modern Language Association of America (MLA). The gatherings were concerned with the same issues that are the subject matter of the organizati ...

. The position of

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

was mostly held by John Wegner of

Angelo State University Angelo State University is a public university in San Angelo, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1928 as San Angelo College. It gained university status and awarded its first baccalaureate degrees in 1967 and graduate degrees in 1969, the s ...

from its first issue until about 2009, though other scholars stepped into the role of editor as needed. The online journal moved from the McCarthy Society's website to the Texas Digital Library repository in 2009. In 2010, Stacey Peebles of

Centre College Centre College, formally Centre College of Kentucky, is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, United States. Chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1819, the col ...

took over as editor.

Penn State University Press (2015–present)

In 2014,

announced that it would begin publishing ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' the following year. It continued to be formally affiliated with the Cormac McCarthy Society. ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' joined Penn State University Press's roster of journals covering individual authors, including

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

, F. Scott Fitzgerald,

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

, and

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

. James McWilliams, a professor at

Texas State University Texas State University (TXST) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in San Marcos, Texas, United States, and another campus in Round Rock, Texas, Round Rock. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has ...

, remarked that the announcement signaled a "rare honor for any writer, much less a living one, to achieve" and said the journal's adoption by a university press "speaks volumes about the enduring themes that McCarthy continues to engage with Faulknerian ambition and

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

ic prose." The journal's back catalog of articles, including those that were self-published by the Cormac McCarthy Society, became available online through scholarly databases like

JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

and Project MUSE. The print journal began publishing two issues a year in 2016. By the time of McCarthy's death in 2023, ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' remained the only periodical dedicated to the author and his works. Also at that time, ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' was one of only three academic journals about a specific author that had begun publication within the author's own lifetime to be listed on the ''MLA Directory of Periodicals'', alongside journals devoted to

James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 January 19, 1997) was an American poet, novelist, critic, and lecturer. He was appointed the 18th United States Poet Laureate in 1966. His other accolades included the National Book Award for Poetry a ...

and

.; see ''Philip Roth Studies'' () and the '' James Dickey Review'' ().

Content

''The Cormac McCarthy Journal'' is the central publication in McCarthy studies. The journal publishes articles about the works of Cormac McCarthy, as well as adaptations of his works and other relevant texts. Beyond

, articles of historical and biographical scholarship have also been an important focus of the journal. Journal contributions in this area by the

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...

-based writer Wesley Morgan have been especially noted; these include coverage of McCarthy's high school years, documentation of real-life people who provided inspiration for characters in ''

Suttree ''Suttree'' is a semi-autobiographical novel by Cormac McCarthy, published in 1979. Set in Knoxville, Tennessee, over a four-year period starting in 1950, the novel follows Cornelius Suttree, who has repudiated his former life of privilege to be ...

'' (1979), and a detailed tracing of the route taken by the characters in ''

The Road ''The Road'' is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed ...

'' (2006) based on

close reading In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, via close attention to individual words, the syntax, the order ...

of geographical landmarks. As of 2013, ''

Blood Meridian ''Blood Meridian Or The Evening Redness in the West'' is a 1985 epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified under the Western, or sometimes the anti-Western, genre. McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random Hou ...

'' (1985) was the most-discussed of McCarthy's works in the journal, while bestsellers like '' All the Pretty Horses'' (1992), ''

No Country for Old Men ''No Country for Old Men'' is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written, directed, produced and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin ...

'' (2005), and ''The Road'' had also received significant attention. In the journal's first issue, an article by Dianne C. Luce—who was then-president of the McCarthy Society—remarked that scholarship up to that time had prioritized the author's more recent

Westerns The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...

, starting with ''Blood Meridian'' and continuing with ''

The Border Trilogy ''The Border Trilogy'' is a series of novels by the American author Cormac McCarthy: '' All the Pretty Horses'' (1992), '' The Crossing'' (1994), and '' Cities of the Plain'' (1998). The trilogy revolves around the coming of age and adventures ...

'', while tending to overlook his Southern works: the novels '' The Orchard Keeper'' (1965), ''

Outer Dark ''Outer Dark'' is the second novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy and was published in 1968. The time and setting are nebulous, but it can be assumed to take place sometime around the turn of the twentieth century somewhere in Appalachia. T ...

'' (1968), ''

Child of God ''Child of God'' (1973) is the third novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. It depicts the life of a violent outcast and serial killer in 1960s Appalachian Tennessee. Though the novel received critical praise, it was not a financial succe ...

'' (1973), and ''Suttree'', and the dramas '' The Gardener's Son'' (1977) and '' The Stonemason'' (1995). Subsequent articles in the journal on these works renewed interest in this period of McCarthy's writing. Special issues of the journal have been devoted to individual works by McCarthy. In 2004, the journal commemorated the silver anniversary of the publication of ''Suttree'' (1979) with a collection of papers collected from a conference celebrating the novel in its central setting of

. According to McCarthy scholar

Peter Josyph Peter Josyph is a New York artist who works concurrently as an author, a painter, an actor-director, a filmmaker, and a photographer. Writing life As an author of literary non-fiction, Peter Josyph has written three books about reading noveli ...

, the ''Suttree'' conference papers were originally intended for publication as an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

, and its failure to materialize in book form served as an example of the "''Suttree'' Syndrome" of critical neglect toward a novel he regards as a "masterpiece". An essay collection on ''Suttree'', expanding on the special issue with additional papers from the 25th-anniversary conference, was published in 2013. Shortly after the publication of ''The Road'', the journal dedicated a special issue to the novel with "investigations of the father-son relationship, the realism of the geography, pastoral imagery, philosophical contexts, and, ultimately, the interrelationship of these issues with McCarthy's other works." In 2022, the journal published an archival trove of several rare interviews with McCarthy printed in small newspapers in Tennessee and Kentucky, between 1968 and 1980. Given the author's reluctance to engage with the press, the journal's find was considered a noteworthy source of insight into the early period of his career. The article received coverage in such outlets as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'', and the ''

Knoxville News Sentinel The ''Knoxville News Sentinel'', also known as ''Knox News'', is a daily newspaper in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Gannett Company. History The newspaper was formed in 1926 from the merger of two competing newspapers: '' ...

'', the last of which had originally printed two of the articles republished by ''The Cormac McCarthy Journal''.

Indexing and abstracting

The journal is

indexed and abstracted An abstracting service is a service that provides abstracts of publications, often on a subject or group of related subjects, usually on a subscription basis. An indexing service is a service that assigns descriptors and other kinds of access po ...

in the following

bibliographic database A bibliographic database is a database of bibliographic records. This is an organised online collection of references to published written works like academic journal, journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government an ...

s: According to the ''

Journal Citation Reports ''Journal Citation Reports'' (''JCR'') is an annual publication by Clarivate. It has been integrated with the Web of Science and is accessed from the Web of Science Core Collection. It provides information about academic journals in the natur ...

'', the journal has a 2022

impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a type of journal ranking. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within their field. The Impact Factor of a journa ...

of 0.1.

References

Sources

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External links

* at

''The Cormac McCarthy Journal''
at the Scholarly Publishing Collective
''The Cormac McCarthy Journal''
at Project MUSE
''The Cormac McCarthy Journal''
at

The Cormac McCarthy Society homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cormac McCarthy, The Works about Cormac McCarthy Academic journals associated with learned and professional societies of the United States Academic journals established in 2001 American Southern literary magazines Biannual journals Biannual magazines published in the United States English-language journals Literary magazines published in the United States Magazines published in Pennsylvania Penn State University Press academic journals McCarthy, Cormac