Writer in Residence Wyatt Mason Published in the New York Times
Writer in Residence Wyatt Mason.
Bard Writer in Residence Wyatt Mason reviewed a new biography of author Cormac McCarthy in the New York Times. Tracy Daugherty’s Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited, to be published this month, is the first major biography of the author, spanning McCarthy’s entire career until his death in 2023. Daugherty draws on ten interviews with McCarthy, as well as magazine features, that together give a fuller picture of his relationship to the press.
“McCarthy’s 60-year career divides neatly into 30-year halves: obscurity and fame,” Mason writes, noting that the author’s legacy has been tarnished by his mistreatment of women, a subject Daugherty doesn’t ignore. His “detailed account of McCarthy’s life … may give us the means to consider whether [his] art was able to transform, even transcend, the life [he led].”
Mason teaches in Bard’s Written Arts Program, which encourages students to experiment with their writing in a context sensitive to intellectual, historical, and social realities. Students consider writing as an act of critical and creative engagement, a way of interrogating and translating the world.
Post Date: 10-13-2026
“McCarthy’s 60-year career divides neatly into 30-year halves: obscurity and fame,” Mason writes, noting that the author’s legacy has been tarnished by his mistreatment of women, a subject Daugherty doesn’t ignore. His “detailed account of McCarthy’s life … may give us the means to consider whether [his] art was able to transform, even transcend, the life [he led].”
Mason teaches in Bard’s Written Arts Program, which encourages students to experiment with their writing in a context sensitive to intellectual, historical, and social realities. Students consider writing as an act of critical and creative engagement, a way of interrogating and translating the world.
Post Date: 10-13-2026