Historical Figures 20 Questions

OK, I've done the research. There is only one living American who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. So I'm going to make a guess - and if this is wrong, then the prize is the Pulitzer.

13. Is it Toni Morrison?
 
It wasn't a compound question. I knew that Morrison was a big name and I wanted to include that.
Was this person famous for writing fiction?
 
16.  He is known for several critically-acclaimed novels.   

EDIT/Hint:  He has won several major literary prizes.  Yet the novel that is now generally regarded as his greatest masterpiece did NOT win any major awards. 
 
Shadow said:
Is it Cormac McCarthy?
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Yes!  Hint gave it away, huh?  Curious why you guessed him rather than, say, Philip Roth or Don DeLillo.  

McCarthy is thought by many, including me, to be America's (if not the world's) greatest living author.  He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Road, he won the (more prestigious) National Book Award for All the Pretty Horses, and the film adaptation of No Country For Old Men won the Oscar for Best Picture.  Not bad.  Yet his greatest masterpiece is Blood Meridian.  Harold Bloom wrote that it was the greatest American novel since Moby-Dick.  There have been reports of efforts to make it into a movie, but they have all crapped out, because it is probably unfilmable.  It should go without saying, but I highly recommend all his novels, particularly Blood Meridian, though it is a difficult read, both because of the language (it reads like poetry, but it is prose, not free verse) and the graphic violence and dark worldview.  If you thought Anton Chigurh was a great bad guy (Javier Bardem won an Oscar for that role in No Country), you ain't seen nothing yet, Judge Holden is as memorable a villain as any in literature.  Also, any fathers out there must, must, must read The Road.  The movie was meh, but the book is awesome.  
 
cornfedhick said:
Yes!  Hint gave it away, huh?  Curious why you guessed him rather than, say, Philip Roth or Don DeLillo. 
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You've talked about McCarthy here before, so I figured it was him.


Seeing as I only guessed the answer, somebody else can have a go if they like. If not, I have a new one.
 
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