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The Father of the Man: The Last Author Portrait Sitting with Cormac McCarthy - Beowulf Sheehan (preorder)
ABOUT THE BOOK
On a hot August day, Beowulf Sheehan and his assistant Chika arrive at the Santa Fe Institute to meet and photograph Cormac McCarthy, writer of masterpieces such as Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, and The Road, auteur of the Southern Gothic, and figure renowned for avoiding the public eye. Their day together takes them from the light of Santa Fe to the shadows of Cormac’s home, exploring his art and life as they go, making what would become Cormac’s author portrait for his novels The Passenger and Stella Maris and, less than one year after they are published, the image used to announce the global news of his passing. The Father of the Man: The Last Author Portrait Sitting with Cormac McCarthy is a recounting of that great day, a photo essay (including many pictures published for the first time), an homage to Cormac and his art, and a reflection of Cormac’s work to serve as a lens through which Beowulf Sheehan better sees, understands, and loves his own father.
PRAISE FOR THE FATHER OF THE MAN
“Beowulf Sheehan’s fascinating double portrait of the great Cormac McCarthy in photographs and prose, is also an autobiography. Difficult fathers and painful childhoods unite both men, and Sheehan, in revealing himself, helps us get under the guard of the famously reticent writer.”
—Salman Rushdie
“Beowulf Sheehan is more than a photographer. He is a conduit through which his subjects become known to us. These extraordinary pictures of Cormac McCarthy reveal not only Sheehan's keen eye, but also his deep understanding of the man beneath his gaze, an understanding made possible by McCarthy's obvious openness to Sheehan, and Sheehan's empathy, experience, and humanity.”
—Tracy Daugherty, author of Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited
“Sheehan masterfully frames the propulsive and archetypal energy of the father wound, which so many of us—especially in the arts—nurse throughout our lives. Achingly real. Tantalizing. Wise. Beautiful. I devoured it.”
—Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and Dad, Love, Me
“The Father of the Man is a remarkably moving engagement with Cormac McCarthy, both visually and in Beowulf’s painfully honest reflections on the way McCarthy’s work made echoes in his own life. An exquisite book. “
—Phil Klay, author of the National Book Award-winning Redeployment
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beowulf Sheehan is a photographer of figures in the arts and humanities. To date, he's photographed better than 1,000 writers from more than 60 countries. His work has been published in the likes of Elle, Esquire, L’Uomo Vogue, The New Yorker, People, Time, Vanity Fair, and Vogue and has been exhibited at institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dostoevsky Museum, International Center of Photography, Museum of the City of New York, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and The Witliff Colelctions. Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan, a collection of portraits of 200 writers from 35 countries with a foreword by Salman Rushdie, was published in 2018. The Father of the Man: The Last Author Portrait Sitting with Cormac McCarthy is Sheehan's second monograph. Beowulf Sheehan is the proud son of an immigrant and translator, grandson of a poet and photographer, grandson of a copy editor, first cousin once removed from an editor, and cousin, first cousin once removed, and great-great-nephew of authors. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he lives in New York City.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: September 1, 2026
Print Length: 80 pages
Dimensions: 6 × 8 inches
ISBN: 978-1-957392-49-3
ABOUT THE BOOK
On a hot August day, Beowulf Sheehan and his assistant Chika arrive at the Santa Fe Institute to meet and photograph Cormac McCarthy, writer of masterpieces such as Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, and The Road, auteur of the Southern Gothic, and figure renowned for avoiding the public eye. Their day together takes them from the light of Santa Fe to the shadows of Cormac’s home, exploring his art and life as they go, making what would become Cormac’s author portrait for his novels The Passenger and Stella Maris and, less than one year after they are published, the image used to announce the global news of his passing. The Father of the Man: The Last Author Portrait Sitting with Cormac McCarthy is a recounting of that great day, a photo essay (including many pictures published for the first time), an homage to Cormac and his art, and a reflection of Cormac’s work to serve as a lens through which Beowulf Sheehan better sees, understands, and loves his own father.
PRAISE FOR THE FATHER OF THE MAN
“Beowulf Sheehan’s fascinating double portrait of the great Cormac McCarthy in photographs and prose, is also an autobiography. Difficult fathers and painful childhoods unite both men, and Sheehan, in revealing himself, helps us get under the guard of the famously reticent writer.”
—Salman Rushdie
“Beowulf Sheehan is more than a photographer. He is a conduit through which his subjects become known to us. These extraordinary pictures of Cormac McCarthy reveal not only Sheehan's keen eye, but also his deep understanding of the man beneath his gaze, an understanding made possible by McCarthy's obvious openness to Sheehan, and Sheehan's empathy, experience, and humanity.”
—Tracy Daugherty, author of Cormac McCarthy: A Legacy Revisited
“Sheehan masterfully frames the propulsive and archetypal energy of the father wound, which so many of us—especially in the arts—nurse throughout our lives. Achingly real. Tantalizing. Wise. Beautiful. I devoured it.”
—Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and Dad, Love, Me
“The Father of the Man is a remarkably moving engagement with Cormac McCarthy, both visually and in Beowulf’s painfully honest reflections on the way McCarthy’s work made echoes in his own life. An exquisite book. “
—Phil Klay, author of the National Book Award-winning Redeployment
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Beowulf Sheehan is a photographer of figures in the arts and humanities. To date, he's photographed better than 1,000 writers from more than 60 countries. His work has been published in the likes of Elle, Esquire, L’Uomo Vogue, The New Yorker, People, Time, Vanity Fair, and Vogue and has been exhibited at institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Dostoevsky Museum, International Center of Photography, Museum of the City of New York, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and The Witliff Colelctions. Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan, a collection of portraits of 200 writers from 35 countries with a foreword by Salman Rushdie, was published in 2018. The Father of the Man: The Last Author Portrait Sitting with Cormac McCarthy is Sheehan's second monograph. Beowulf Sheehan is the proud son of an immigrant and translator, grandson of a poet and photographer, grandson of a copy editor, first cousin once removed from an editor, and cousin, first cousin once removed, and great-great-nephew of authors. A native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he lives in New York City.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: September 1, 2026
Print Length: 80 pages
Dimensions: 6 × 8 inches
ISBN: 978-1-957392-49-3