Episode 24: Wrangling with Wallach: An Interview with Rick Wallach, critic, scholar, editor and co-founder of the McCarthy Society

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The guest for Episode 24 of READING MCCARTHY needs no introduction to any member of the Cormac McCarthy Society, visitors to the CormacMccarthy.com forums, or readers of McCarthy Criticism.  One of the founders of the Cormac McCarthy society, Rick Wallach survived a degree in theology and years teaching English in Miami, Florida, and is a founding member of the Cormac McCarthy Society. He is senior editor of the Cormac McCarthy Soci ety casebook series, and editor of the two-volume collection of essays Sacred Violence as well as Myth, Legend Dust: Critical Responses to Cormac McCarthy, and co-editor with Lynnea Chapman King and the late James Welsh of From Novel to Film: No Country for Old Men. He has written widely and extensively on numerous topics in literature, film, media and contemporary music. 

Thanks to Thomas Frye, who composed, performed, and produced the theme music and interludes for READING MCCARTHY.  The opinions of the host and guests do not reflect opinions of any affiliated institutions or the Cormac McCarthy society.

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New! A book adaptation of many of the episodes focusing on McCarthy's Southern novels is forthcoming in October 2026.  Click the link for details on Reading Cormac McCarthy: Scholars Discuss the Southern Novels.

Starting in spring of 2023, the podcast began accepting minor sponsorship offers to offset the costs of the podcast.  This may cause a mild disconnect in earlier podcasts where the host asks for patrons in lieu of sponsorships.   But if we compare it to a very large and naked bald man in the middle of the desert who leads you to an extinct volcano to create gunpowder, it seems pretty minor...

As always, the views of the host and his guests do not constitute the views of the Cormac McCarthy society, or their employers or institutions, or their pets or favorite sporting teams.