Augusta Britt says relationship with then-married author, who died in , began after they met at motel pool. The author of The Road and Suttree gave very few interviews, so little is known of his private life other than that he married three times and lived in Spain and Texas before settling in New Mexico. The author was still there, and apparently asked her if she was planning to shoot him β to which she responded no, she wanted him to sign her book.
Britt said the pair began a relationship and in , after a beating led to her being admitted to hospital, McCarthy asked her to leave her home and come to Mexico with him. She accepted and they travelled along the path of Blood Meridian, the novel McCarthy was researching at the time, published in , which follows a fictional teenager from Tennessee who runs away from home and travels across the US-Mexico border.
Britt told Vanity Fair that the state police and the FBI were after them at one point β McCarthy feared being found guilty of statutory rape or in breach of the Mann Act, which criminalises trafficking β although Vanity Fair did not find any evidence of a police or federal investigation.
Britt said the pair had sex for the first time when McCarthy was 43 and she was I really feel that if I had not met him, I would have died young. What I had trouble with came later. When he started writing about me. Britt said McCarthy proposed to her twice, but that both times he got cold feet. Later she found out that he had a son the same age as her. In he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, the money from which meant Britt could go and visit her family, she said.
However, she and McCarthy reportedly stayed in touch after the split, with McCarthy visiting Britt in Tucson every few months for the rest of his life. This article is more than 2 months old. Read more. Explore more on these topics Cormac McCarthy news. Reuse this content. Most viewed.
