In a Vanity Fair report, legendary author Cormac McCarthy's longtime "muse" Augusta Britt reveals her story for the first time.

An interview with the Vanity Fair writer whose astounding revelations about Cormac McCarthy went viral for all the wrong reasons.

American author Cormac McCarthy was 42 when he met 16-year-old Augusta Britt, who she says inspired characters in some of his famous novels.

Many have criticized the way the magazine revealed McCarthy’s “secret muse,” whom he met when she was 16 and he was 42.

Revelations about a relationship between the author and a girl who was 16 when they met shocked readers, but not scholars of his work. Now there’s a debate about how much she influenced his writing.

When Vincenzo Barney, a young, inexperienced writer, brought Vanity Fair the literary scoop of the year, the magazine’s editors must have been thrilled. So thrilled, it seems, that they took leave of their senses and allowed him to write a piece of prose so purple — including claims so bizarre,

Augusta Britt, who says she met the then-married author at a motel pool, is believed to have inspired several novels