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Books Are Made Out of Books: A Guide to Cormac McCarthy's Literary Influences

Michael Lynn Crews

4.25 · Rating details · 36 ratings · 8 reviews

Cormac McCarthy told an interviewer for the New York Times Magazine that “books are made out of books,” but he has been famously unwilling to discuss how his own writing draws on the works of other writers. Yet his novels and plays masterfully appropriate and allude to an extensive range of literary works, demonstrating that McCarthy is well aware of literary tradition, re ...more

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Hardcover, 356 pages

Published September 15th 2017 by University of Texas Press

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Dec 18, 2021 Canon rated it really liked it

Shelves: reference

"It is, for the critic, simultaneously frustrating and fascinating to consider that what McCarthy liked about the Weston quotation was the sound of the words," (12)

A friend of mine, who I introduced to McCarthy earlier this year by lending him Blood Meridian, gave this to me as a Xmas present. Its title comes from a 1992 interview with McCarthy, in which he said of his literary influences that "the ugly fact is books are made out of books." This turns out to be quite literally true in McCarthy's "It is, for the critic, simultaneously frustrating and fascinating to consider that what McCarthy liked about the Weston quotation was the sound of the words," (12)

A friend of mine, who I introduced to McCarthy earlier this year by lending him Blood Meridian, gave this to me as a Xmas present. Its title comes from a 1992 interview with McCarthy, in which he said of his literary influences that "the ugly fact is books are made out of books." This turns out to be quite literally true in McCarthy's case. Delving into the 98 boxes of the Cormac McCarthy Papers at Texas State University in San Marco, TX (which became available to researchers in spring 2009), Crews found nearly 150 references to "the names of authors, the titles of books, or clearly attributable quotations" in McCarthy's notes, manuscripts, and correspondence.

"Clearly attributable" is perhaps misleading in implying ease of identification, since many of McCarthy's allusions are "covert," meaning that their "derivation can go unnoticed" unless readers antecedently know the referent (8-9). Another term for McCarthy's covert allusions is "phraseological appropriations" (coined by Gregory Machacek), which act as "a sort of physical raw material that can be cut, reworked, and incorporated into a new setting," (8-9). Crews compares these phraseological appropriations to the stones from James Agee's Knoxville home that McCarthy reportedly used in constructing an annex to his own house (!). Crews doesn't chase down the literary allusions that are obvious from McCarthy's published texts (e.g., when it's clear that he's referencing an Emily Dickinson poem, etc.), narrowing his focus to those that come from "behind the scenes," in notes and marginalia, showing directly what McCarthy was reading or thinking about as he wrote. Crews followed a three-part sleuthing process in compiling the references in this book: (1) finding the source, (2) figuring out the relationship between the quoted source and McCarthy's published works, and (3) exploring the connection's significance for understanding McCarthy's works.

A couple of extremely interesting examples from the introduction: a fragment of a line traced to the "Knights and Squires" chapter of Moby Dick, referenced in McCarthy's notes as "'Federated along one keel' Melville" that ends up in Blood Meridian as "federated with invisible wires of vigilance...". Or "Thing [sic] become so burdened with meaning that their forms are dimmed," a quote copied in McCarthy's notes for Suttree, traced to Foucault's Madness & Civilization, winding up in Suttree as "Things themselves become so burdened with attributes, signs, allusions that they finally lose their own form." As Crews notes, the intellectual and the aesthetic borrowings are suffused with another, melding what John Dewey called "matter for" and "matter in" artistic production.

This book is arranged chronologically by McCarthy's published works, with entries on the authors that show up in the archive for each book. Crews says that the book can be read either "vertically," dipped into here and there as a reference source, or "horizontally," cover-to-cover. For readers in the latter camp, there will be repetition since there are entries on the same author for multiple books; for the former, each entry can be new. I'm taking the vertical, reference approach. Having read the intro, I've dipped into entries for The Orchard Keeper, which I recently read, and Suttree, which I'm currently reading. Also very excited to explore the references for Blood Meridian.

I think this is a very cool book — fascinating project, excellently executed. I can attest that it's the perfect gift for the Cormac McCarthy fan in your life. One interesting tidbit is that McCarthy has apparently been working on a new novel for many years, and it's soon (?) to be published. It's reportedly set at least in part on an off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Sounds intriguing. At any rate, I wish there were a book like this for all my favorite authors, although I would hate to compile them, given how painstaking a task it seems to be (so thanks, Crews). Pynchon, anybody? Your tenure will be assured. ...more

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Jan 27, 2019 Max McNabb rated it it was amazing

One of the best books on Cormac McCarthy's work I've ever read. If you're a fan, this is definitely worth reading. Also, until I read this book, I wasn't aware of this fascinating quote from McCarthy's unproduced screenplay Whales and Men: “Darwinism explains the mechanism of an elaborate system and then burins [Though The Oxford English Dictionary does not document an example of the word being used this way, McCarthy appears to be referring to a “burin,” a tool used for engraving on metal.] the ...more

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Mar 21, 2020 Evan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Dr. Crews gives fellow McCarthy readers a revelatory gift. This well-organized, enjoyable collection of documented influencers places us behind the shoulders of an American genius, reading the intimate notes and draft pages that became contemporary classics. I look forward to rereading sections, especially those pertaining to "The Crossing" and "Suttree." ...more

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Dec 19, 2017 Jeremy marked it as to-read

Shelves: non-fiction, literature, writing, criticism

Michael earned his Ph.D. from Baylor in 2014. I knew his wife, Denise, better than I knew Michael. In 2018 I joined Michael as English faculty at Regent University.

Harold bloom blurbed the book. I'm sure that was one of the highlights of Dr. Barcus's (and probably Michael's) career. Dr. Barcus died about two years after Michael graduated (Feb. 2016). ...more

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Sep 26, 2019 Trevor Smith rated it it was amazing

I found this text to be brilliant, incisive, and well-organized.

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Jun 16, 2021 Scott Bielinski rated it it was amazing

An outstanding resource for any lover of Cormac McCarthy. Outstanding.

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Jun 28, 2019 John rated it really liked it

Largely discursive, I'll give props to any book that points me to several other books I wasn't familiar with, within the first fifty pages.

This is striking less "Anxiety of Influence" and more "CONFIDENCE of the Influence", regarding Cormac McCarthy's use."

Just a bit awe-inspiring AND intimidating regarding McCarthy's references, control and use of other literary works.
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