In a career that spanned nearly six decades, Cormac McCarthy consistently wrote about dreams and dreamers. Characters dream of dead family members, animals, the apocalypse, monstrous creatures, Judgment Day, God, and more. They also have long philosophical conversations about dreaming, wherein dreams come freighted with special access to the real.

Scholars have long recognized dreams as a common artistic tool of McCarthy's craft. But the 2017 appearance of his article "The Kekulé Problem" in Nautilus, and the release of his dream-addled final novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, in 2022, all but demand a study that explores a philosophy of dreaming in McCarthy's body of work. McCarthy's influences and allusions indicate an expansive and varied understanding of the role of dreams, yet there are discernable patterns that gesture toward the active role of dreams in conveying moral insight and educating both characters and readers in subtle and creative ways. This book argues that dreams and dreaming in Cormac McCarthy's canon serve as a moral device, often used to explore spiritual reality.