Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen

253 Pages·2017·6.743 MB·English

by  Stacey Peebles

Cormac McCarthy and Performance
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Cormac McCarthy
and Performance
Page, Stage, Screen
Stacey Peebles
University of Texas Press    Austin
The author gratefully acknowledges permission to use excerpts from the following previously
published material:
“Cormac McCarthy and Film.” The Cambridge Companion to Cormac McCarthy. Ed. Steven Frye.
New York: Cambridge UP, 2013. 162–174.
“Cormac McCarthy’s Dramas and Screenplays.” Critical Insights: Cormac McCarthy. Ed. David
Cremean. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2013. 161–178. Used by permission of eBScO Information
Services, Ipswich, MA.
“Hang and Rattle: John Grady Cole’s Horsebreaking in Typescript, Novel, and Film.” Cormac
McCarthy: All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, The Road. Ed. Sara Spurgeon. London:
Continuum, 2011. 43–57. By permission of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
“Hold Still”: Models of Masculinity in the Coens’ No Country for Old Men.” No Country for Old
Men: From Novel to Film. Ed. Lynnea Chapman King, Rick Wallach, and Jim Welsh. Lanham,
MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2009. 124–138.
Copyright © 2017 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2017
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
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♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
anSI/nISO Z39.48- 1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
LIBrary Of cOngreSS cataLOgIng-I n- PuBLIcatIOn Data
Names: Peebles, Stacey L. (Stacey Lyn), 1976–, author.
Title: Cormac McCarthy and performance : page, stage, screen / Stacey Peebles.
Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: Lccn 2016035705
ISBn 978-1-4773-1204-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBn 978-1-4773-1231-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBn 978-1-4773-1205-6 (library e-book)
ISBn 978-1-4773-1206-3 (non-library e-book)
Subjects: LcSH: McCarthy, Cormac, 1933—Criticism and interpretation. | Motion picture
authorship—History and criticism. | Playwriting—History and criticism. | Authors, American—
20th century—History and criticism. | Motion picture authorship.
Classification: Lcc PS3563.c337 Z797 2017 | DDc 813/.54—dc23
Lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035705
doi:10.7560/312049
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
IntrODuctIOn. Cormac McCarthy, Center Stage  1
cHaPter One. First Forays: Early Film Interest and
The Gardener’s Son 15
cHaPter t wO. The Unproduced Screenplays: “Cities of the Plain,”
“Whales and Men,” and “No Country for Old Men” 41
cHaPter tHree. Works for Theater: The Stonemason and
The Sunset Limited 69
cHaPter fOur . Keeping the Faith: All the Pretty Horses and
The Road 93
cHaPter fIve. Tragic Success Stories: No Country for Old Men
and The Sunset Limited 133
cHaPter SIx. Great Expectations: The Counselor and
Child of God 163
cOncLuSIOn. Bears That Dance, Bears That Don’t:
The Attempts to Adapt Blood Meridian 201
Notes 213
Bibliography 221
Index 237
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Acknowledgments
T
HankS fIrSt t O tHe wOnDerfuL Staff Of tHe BILL
Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, where the Cor-
mac McCarthy Papers are housed—Steve Davis, David Coleman, and above
all the incomparable Katie Salzmann, who not only makes archive visits a
delight but provides clarifications, advice about logistics, and lots of good
humor. More generally, I am grateful to the Wittliff Collections for grant-
ing me permission to quote from material in the Cormac McCarthy Papers.
Thanks also to Mr. Wittliff himself, who was gracious enough to speak with
me about the subject of this book.
Many thanks to Silvia Erskine for granting me permission to quote from
Albert Erskine’s notes and correspondence, and also to Rebecca Tesich for
permission to quote from Steve Tesich’s unpublished screenplay adaptation
of Blood Meridian.
My good friend Dianne Luce read all of my manuscript in draft, and I’m
grateful, as I always am, for her excellent guidance and conversation. Steve
Frye read portions of it and talked through most of the ideas with me, which
is always as much fun as it is illuminating. Nick Lawrence, Dan Manheim,
Scott Olsen, Steve Davis, and Dan Kirchner also read sections and gave me
helpful comments. I’m grateful to them for their time and intellect, as I am
to William Weber, Matthew Hallock, Danielle LaLonde, Shayna Sheinfeld,
and Azita Onsaloo, who all helped me navigate areas of study that were rela-
tively new to me, like conceptions of tragedy, theatrical history, apocalyp-
ticism, and recent theories of adaptation. Part of the fun in writing a book
is the conversations and new friendships it leads you into, and this was no
exception. Andy Ingalls was kind enough to get excited about every aspect
of this project, and further to put me in touch with Austin Pendleton, who
took time out of his superlatively busy schedule to talk to me about his ex-
vii
perience with The Sunset Limited. Thanks to both of them for the good story-
telling. I’m grateful as well to Dustin Anderson, who helped me come up
with this book’s title, and to Peter Josyph for sharing his own explorations of
McCarthy and performance with me.
As was the case when I was writing my first book, I was lucky enough
during the planning, writing, and revision of this one to have the feedback
and support of a group of like- minded scholars: Danielle LaLonde, Robyn
Cutright, Sara Egge, Kaelyn Wiles, Mary Daniels, KatieAnn Skogsberg, and
Jenn Goetz. We may all work in different fields and in service of different
disciplinary expectations, but nothing keeps the wheels turning like getting
together to set goals, evaluate writing practices, and vent as needed.
Jim Burr’s editorial guidance on the project, from start to finish, was im-
peccable and always good-n atured. Kirk Curnutt once told me that being an
editor means that you have the opportunity to ensure that “people are treated
the right way,” and Jim fits that bill to a tee. I’m also deeply grateful to James
Cox, one of the readers Jim assigned who was, until recently, anonymous to
me. Professor Cox read the manuscript through in two different iterations
and provided ample and incisive commentary for each, undoubtedly making
this book a better one.
Thanks finally to Cormac McCarthy, whose work has long thrilled and
fascinated me, and to my family—especially Calliope, my own small, viva-
cious, verbally and physically gymnastic Muse.
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viii   Acknowledgments
Cormac McCarthy and Performance