Cormac McCarthy Wins Pulitzer Prize

The winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was awarded to Cormac McCarthy for his novel, The Road. After This by Alice McDermott and The Echo Maker by Richard Powers were also nominated for the annual prize of $10,000, which is awarded "for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life." McCarthy's bestselling novel (an Oprah pick), tells the story of a father and son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic winter landscape.

I had the opportunity to hear McCarthy's editor at Knopf speak some years ago, and he shared how he stuck with McCarthy through several unsung novels, knowing McCarthy's worth, even if the public hadn't caught on yet. He gave McCarthy as an example of how this more traditional model of publishing pays off. Though it could be argued that in this climate beggars can't be choosers, it's worthwhile when possible to aim for editors who have a record of nurturing authors.