Blood Meridian - Background and Writing

Background and Writing

McCarthy wrote Blood Meridian while living on the money from his 1981 MacArthur Fellows grant. It is his first novel set in the U.S. South-West, a change from the Appalachian settings of his earlier work.

Describing events of extreme violence, McCarthy's prose is sparse, yet expansive, with an often biblical quality and frequent religious references. McCarthy's unusual writing style involves many unusual or archaic words, no quotation marks for dialogue, and no apostrophes to signal most contractions. McCarthy has not granted interviews regarding the novel, leaving the work open to interpretation.

McCarthy conducted considerable research to write the book. Critics have repeatedly demonstrated that even brief and seemingly inconsequential passages of Blood Meridian rely on historical evidence. The Glanton gang segments are based on Samuel Chamberlain's account of the group in his memoir My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue, which he wrote during the later part of his life. Chamberlain rode with John Joel Glanton and his company between 1849 and 1850. His book has been criticized as embellished and historically unreliable. The novel's antagonist Judge Holden appeared in Chamberlain's account, but his true identity remains a mystery. Chamberlain does not appear in the novel. Some critics have suggested that "the kid" is a fictional stand-in for Chamberlain.

Elements of the novel are also widely believed to be at least partially inspired by the writing of T. R. Fehrenbach, specifically his authoritative and highly original histories of Texas, Mexico, and the Comanche.