In 1994, the puckish American literary critic Harold Bloom published his “The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.” Included in the sprawling, bombastic tome was a controversial list of what Bloom considered to be the great works of the Western tradition, including those published in the 20th century. Bloom’s list drew both praise and ire for which authors he chose as once and future classics.
One of the 20th-century authors whom Bloom included was Cormac McCarthy, the author of brutal and haunting meditations on the violence and wildness endemic in American history — Bloom has heralded McCarthy’s 1985 Herman Melvillian Western “Blood Meridian” (soon to be a feature film) as perhaps the greatest American novel.
Throughout the rest of his career, in a variety of writings, including the posthumous “The American Canon: Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon” (2019), Bloom would heap praise on McCarthy as being one of the greatest living American writers. Bloom, although clearly choosing personal favorites, was noted for his lack of political correctness or bias in his judgments, being one of the last great American readers of literature for literature’s sake.
A lot of time has passed since the Clinton-era “Western Canon,” and McCarthy has become known as a much more versatile writer than simply the author of “Blood Meridian.” Today, McCarthy is essentially known for four major works.
There is still Bloom’s favorite, “Blood Meridian,” a story of the struggle among Americans, Mexicans, and native peoples for control of the
