Monthly magazine Vanity Fair is facing backlash for a recent article that some readers say romanticizes author Cormac McCarthy’s relationship with Augusta Britt. Augusta was a 16-year-old runaway when the 42-year-old Cormac allegedly pursued her in the 1970s. Social media users condemned the article's tone, with one commenter calling it "positively drooling" over abuse.
Trigger warning: grooming, exploitation – Cormac, a renowned American author, and Augusta, a foster child facing significant hardships, met in the 1970s when she was 16 and he was 42, at a motel pool in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Image credits: Andrew H. Walker / Getty
Augusta was revealed as the novelist's secret underage muse by Vanity Fair in a piece published on Wednesday (November 20), more than a year after Cormac’s death from prostate cancer.
The article, written Vincenzo Barney, focused on Augusta, who is now 64, recounting her relationship with Cormac and their first meeting at a hotel pool in Tucson.
Vanity Fair is facing backlash for glorifying Cormac McCarthy's problematic relationship with Augusta Britt in a recent article
Image credits: Norman Jean Roy / Vanity Fair
Augusta revealed that she met Cormac when he was 64 and she was 16, in 1976. She recalled: “I was in and out of foster care at the time, and I used to go to the pool at this motel off the freeway in the south side of Tucson called the Desert Inn.
“They weren’t allowed to have locks on bedroom or bathroom doors, so the men would just follow me into all the rooms.
“But at the Desert Inn, I could use the showers by the pool to shower.”
Image credits: Vanity Fair
Augusta quickly became Cormac’s muse. As Vincenzo wrote: “Just imagine for a moment: You’re an unappreciated literary genius who has not even hit your stride before going out of print.
“Your novels so far have circled around dark Southern characters who do dark Southern things.
“You’re stalled on the draft of a fourth novel, called Suttree, which features an indeterminately young side character named Harrogate, not yet written as a runaway.
“You’re sitting by a pool at a cheap motel when a beautiful 16-year-old runaway sidles up to you with a stolen gun in one hand and your debut novel in the other."
Image credits: Cormac McCarthy
“She reads in her closet to stay out of violence’s earshot. To survive her lonely anguish, the wound she’s been carrying since age 11, this girl has only literature to turn to: Hemingway, Faulkner, you.
“She flickers with comic innocence yet tragic experience beyond her years and an atavistic insistence on survival on her own terms.
“She has suffered more childhood violence than you can imagine, and she holds your own prose up to you for autograph, dedication, proof of provenance.”
Augusta and Cormac's relationship was seen by the public as concerning and "possibly illegal"
Image credits: Cormac McCarthy
Augusta Britt admitted that while she initially had no intention of pursuing a relationship with the author, their connection developed, and she believes he "saved her life" during a turbulent period.
Vanity Fair writer Vincenzo described their first intimate encounter when Augusta was 17 and Cormac was 43, a dynamic the article acknowledged as "possibly illegal," raising concerns about power imbalances and grooming.
Image credits: Cormac McCarthy
The article sparked outrage, as one reader commented, as per The Daily Mail: “The writer is positively drooling over the thought of an exploited, abused 16-year-old girl.
“He celebrates Cormac McCarthy's p*dophilia (he was 42!) as ‘the craziest love story.’ What is going on here?”
The Telegraph candidly reviewed the article on Thursday (November 21), stating: “Perhaps more troubling than the mangled prose, Barney seems to treat McCarthy’s p*dophilic interest in the vulnerable teenager as a great love story."
Image credits: Stephen Lovekin / Getty
“It is a scarcely unbelievable stance to take in 2024, seven years after the #MeToo scandal first broke and seven decades following the publication of Lolita.”
Lolita, written by Vladimir Nabokov and published in 1955, is a novel about a man named Humbert Humbert who becomes fixated on a young girl, Dolores Haze, whom he nicknames Lolita.
Image credits: Cormac McCarthy
Another Facebook user wrote: “Wow, what a year of disappointments as regards authors I held high—if secretly being creeps.”
“A dirty old man,” someone else penned.
A person shared on Facebook: “I was a huge fan of Cormac McCarthy. I can’t express how disappointed and disgusted I am now after reading the Vanity Fair article."
Image credits: Cormac McCarthy
“And also with the moron who wrote it and romanticized the affair with a 16 year old girl. Where is the crime writing community on this?”
A commentator stated: “Yes, the Cormac McCarthy Vanity Fair article is THAT bad. For god’s sake, get a woman to write about the 16-year-old muse next time.”
Vincenzo has since written on his Substack page: “I must thank Augusta Britt, one of the best humans I’ve ever met, and to whom I owe the most gratitude.
“I don’t know why, but I was lucky enough to be found by her on April Fools Day. Everything since then has felt foolishly kismet.
“Without Augusta, I would be fiddling away at this Substack, going nowhere fast. All that I do from now on, I owe to her and dedicate eternally.”
Nevertheless, the criticism continued to pour in, as a Substack user wrote: “This is one of the worst pieces I've ever read; you were so busy f***ing off in terrible prose to the thought of Cormac McCarthy that you ignored the woman struggling with being groomed in front of you.”
A separate individual chimed in: “‘I'm so proud that I wrote a fawning piece about Cormac McCarthy trafficking a child to Mexico for s*x.
“Man I know it's a piece in Vanity Fair but a) this being published was editorial malpractice b) you having an entire book of this is editorial malpractice c) you should have donated the kill fee that Vanity Fair should have offered you to a rape crisis charity, good christ.”
Image credits: Max
Others did appear to appreciate Vincenzo’s piece, as a reader noted: “Mesmerizing read that explores the complexities of desire and emotional dependency.
“Beyond the undeniable power imbalances, this story soars for its descriptions of landscapes and longings. Thank you for this still unfinished and fascinating story of survival.”
Bored Panda has contacted Vanity Fair and Vincenzo Barney for comment.
Commenters were quick to point fingers at the author of the article
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