One of my favorite authors is Cormac McCarthy. He was reclusive, but after his death in 2023, personal details are starting to surface.
I was reading Richard Grant’s article in Smithsonian about McCarthy’s personal library, and I was struck by something that has nothing to do with literature. Apparently McCarthy had amassed a large collection of men’s clothing, with a particular interest in tweed jackets. He also had strong opinions on dress shoes:
In his copy of The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men’s Style, McCarthy penciled his opinion of slip-on dress shoes: “disgusting.” Further down the same page, next to a sentence praising shiny-buckled monk-strap shoes, he wrote, “yet more horror.”
Source: “Two Years After Cormac McCarthy’s Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth” (Smithsonian Magazine), by Richard Grant.