He published his first novel at the age of 57: Who is William Gay?
After high school, he joined the United States Navy and served during the Vietnam War. He worked as a carpenter, drywall fitter, and painter for many years before publishing his first novel, The Long Home, in 1999, at the age of 57.
(27 October 1941- 23 February 2012)
Born in Tennessee in 1941, William Gay enlisted in the US Navy after graduating from high school and participated in the Vietnam War.
He started writing when he was fifteen years old, but he earned his living as a carpenter and painter. Establishing a friendship with Cormac McCarthy, whom he admired, brought him closer to literature.
He met with McCarthy frequently, had his writings read, and received advice from the master writer.
William Elbert Gay (October 27, 1941 – February 23, 2012) was an American novelist, and author of short stories and essays. Gay was born in Hohenwald, Tennessee. After high school, Gay joined the United States Navy and served during the Vietnam War. After returning to the States, he lived in both New York City and Chicago before returning to Lewis County, Tennessee, where he lived from 1978 until his death.
Although he had been writing since the age of 15, he did not publish anything until 1998, when two of his stories were published in literary magazines.
His first novel, Eternal House, was published in 1999. Gay won the James A Michener Award with this novel and became famous.
He continued to write until his death in 2012.
William Gay published his first novel, The Eternal Home, in 1999, at the age of 57. For many years, he shared what he wrote only with a handful of people, including Cormac McCarty. Eternal Home quickly became a huge success and rose to cult status. William Gay has been compared to great writers in American literature such as Cormac McCarty and William Faulkner. He was shown as one of the most important representatives of Southern Gothic.
Eternal Home is the story of Nathan Winer, whose father was gruesomely murdered, of bootlegger Dallas Hardin, and of William Tell Oliver, who silently watches the events from his cabin in the woods. In this novel, William Gay reveals the most secret, most evil, and at the same time most innocent sides of humans. It describes the deplorable landscape of the 1940s in a flawless style.