Cormac McCarthy, author of Blood Meridian, dead at 89

Cormac McCarthy, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in American history, has died aged 89.

McCarthy passed away on Tuesday at his home in Sante Fe, New Mexico, his publisher Knopf confirmed.

In a statement it said: 'Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy died today of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was eighty-nine years old. His death was confirmed by his son, John McCarthy.'

Cormac McCarthy attends the HBO Films & The Cinema Society screening of Sunset Limited at Porter House on February 1, 2011 in New York City

Fellow author Stephen King led tributes online writing on Twitter: 'Cormac McCarthy, maybe the greatest American novelist of my time, has passed away at 89. 

'He was full of years and created a fine body of work, but I still mourn his passing.'

McCarthy was known for such Western and apocalyptic novels as 'The Road,' 'Blood Meridian' and 'No Country for Old Men,' which was adapted by the Coen brothers into an Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. 

His other honors include a National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for 'All the Pretty Horses.'

In 2009, he became the second author, after Philip Roth, to receive the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for lifetime achievement in American fiction.

 He explored themes of despair as well as tenderness, while not shying away from brutal violence. 

'If it doesn’t concern life and death,' Mr. McCarthy once told Rolling Stone, 'it’s not interesting.' 

His novels took readers across the great range landscapes of the United States from the deserts of the Southwest to the woods of Tennessee, even the bleakness of a post apocalypse world.