Monthly magazineVanity Fairis facingbacklashfor a recent article that some readers say romanticizes authorCormac McCarthy’s relationship withAugusta 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” overabuse.
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.
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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.
“It was near an area of town called the Miracle Mile. It wasn’t very safe in thefosterhomes.
“They weren’t allowed to have locks on bedroom or bathroom doors, so the men would just follow me into all the rooms.
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.
Image credits:Cormac McCarthy
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy died today of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was eighty-nine years old.
“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 childhoodviolencethan you can imagine, and she holds your own prose up to you for autograph, dedication, proof of provenance.”
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 Fairwriter 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 andgrooming.
The article sparked outrage, as one reader commented, as perThe 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 Telegraphcandidly 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 #MeTooscandalfirst broke and seven decades following the publication ofLolita.”
AFacebookuser commented: “The outrage is appropriate.”
AnotherFacebookuser 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 onFacebook: “I was a huge fan of Cormac McCarthy. I can’t express how disappointed and disgusted I am now after reading theVanity Fairarticle.”
“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 commentatorstated: “Yes, the Cormac McCarthyVanity Fairarticle 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 hisSubstackpage: “I must thank Augusta Britt, one of the best humans I’ve ever met, and to whom I owe the most gratitude.
“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.”
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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 inVanity Fairbut 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 thatVanity Fairshould 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 Pandahas contacted Vanity Fair and Vincenzo Barney for comment.
Commenters were quick to point fingers at the author of the article
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