Walker Percy (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962. He devoted his literary life to the exploration of "the dislocation of man in the modern age,"^[1] and his work exhibited a unique combination of existentialism, Southern sensibility, and deeply-felt Catholicism. is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Nickname: Location in Jefferson County in the state of Alabama Coordinates: , Country State County Jefferson, Shelby Government  - Mayor Bernard Kincaid (D) Area  - City  151. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... The city of Covington is the parish seat of St. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. ... is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Friday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Southern literature (sometimes called the literature of the American South) is defined as American literature about the Southern United States or by writers from this region. ... For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ... Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of signs and symbols, both individually and grouped into sign systems. ... The Moviegoer is a 1961 novel by Walker Percy. ... The National Book Awards is one of the most preeminent literary prizes in the United States. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Biography

Early life

Percy was born in Birmingham, Alabama, into a distinguished Mississippi Protestant family whose past luminaries had included congressmen and Civil War heroes. Prior to Percy's birth, his grandfather had killed himself with a shotgun, setting a pattern of emotional struggle and tragic death that would haunt Percy throughout his life. Nickname: Location in Jefferson County in the state of Alabama Coordinates: , Country State County Jefferson, Shelby Government  - Mayor Bernard Kincaid (D) Area  - City  151. ...

In 1929, Percy's father used a shotgun to commit suicide. The Percy family then moved to Athens, Georgia where two years later, his mother died in a car crash when she drove off a country bridge and into a bayou—an accident that Percy regarded as another suicide.^[2] Walker and his two younger brothers, Phin and Roy, then moved to Greenville, Mississippi, where his bachelor uncle William Alexander Percy, lawyer, poet, and autobiographer, became their guardian and adopted them. “Uncle Will” introduced Walker to many writers and poets and to a neighboring boy his own age – Shelby Foote, who became Walker’s life-long best friend. For other uses, see Athens (disambiguation). ... Greenville is a city located in Washington County, Mississippi. ... William Alexander Percy (1885-1942) is a poet from Greenville, Mississippi. ... Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. ...

As young men, Walker and Shelby decided to pay their respects to William Faulkner by visiting him in Oxford, Mississippi. However, when they finally drove up to his home, Percy was so in awe of the literary giant that he could not bring himself to talk to him. Later on, he recounted how he could only sit in the car and watch while Foote and Faulkner had a lively conversation on the porch. William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Percy joined Foote at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a brother in Sigma Alpha Epsilon, as was William Faulkner (University of Mississippi), and then trained as a medical doctor at Columbia University in New York City, receiving his medical degree in 1941. After contracting TB from performing an autopsy while interning at Bellevue, Percy spent the next several years recuperating at the Trudeau Sanitorium in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. During this period Percy read the works of Danish existentialist writer, Søren Kierkegaard, and the Russian novelist, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and he began to question the ability of science to explain the basic mysteries of human existence. During this time (ca. 1947) Percy converted to Catholicism, as well as deciding to become a writer rather than a physician--as he would later write, he would study the pathology of the soul rather than that of the body. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. ... Sigma Alpha Epsilon (ΣΑΕ) is a secret letter, social college fraternity. ... The word physician should not be confused with physicist, which means a scientist in the area of physics. ... Alma Mater Columbia University is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. ... For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for tubercle bacillus or Tuberculosis) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ... Bellevue (French, meaning beautiful view) is the name of many places in many countries: Australia Bellevue, Western Australia See also: Bellevue Hill, New South Wales Canada: Bellevue, Alberta Bellevue, Newfoundland and Labrador Bellevue, Ontario Bellevue, Prince Edward Island Bellevue, Saskatchewan Germany: Schloss Bellevue is the official residence of the President... Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (IPA: , but usually Anglicized as ;  ) 5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855) was a prolific 19th century Danish philosopher and theologian. ... Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, IPA: , sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, Dostoievsky, or Dostoevski  ) (November 11 [O.S. October 30] 1821–February 9 [O.S. January 28] 1881) was a Russian novelist and writer of fiction whose works, including Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, have had a profound and lasting effect...

Marriage and children

He married Mary Bernice Townsend, a medical technician, on November 7, 1946, and they raised their two daughters in Covington, Louisiana. is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The city of Covington is the parish seat of St. ...

Literary career

In 1961, Percy published his first novel, The Moviegoer, after many years of work and rewriting in collaboration with editor, Stanley Kauffman. Percy later wrote of the novel that it was the story of "a young man who had all the advantages of a cultivated old-line southern family: a feel for science and art, a liking for girls, sports cars, and the ordinary things of the culture, but who nevertheless feels himself quite alienated from both worlds, the old South and the new America." The Moviegoer is a 1961 novel by Walker Percy. ...

Subsequent works included The Last Gentleman (1966), Love in the Ruins (1971), Lancelot (1977), The Second Coming (1980), and The Thanatos Syndrome in 1987. Percy also published a number of non-fiction works exploring his interests in semiotics and existentialism. The Last Gentleman is a 1966 novel by Walker Percy. ... The Second Coming is a novel by Walker Percy. ... The Thanatos Syndrome was Walker Percys last novel. ...

Percy was instrumental in getting John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces published in 1980, over a decade after Toole's suicide. John Kennedy Toole (December 17, 1937 – March 26, 1969) was an American novelist, from New Orleans, Louisiana, best known for his novel A Confederacy of Dunces. ... The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980, 11 years after the authors suicide. ...

In 1987 Percy, along with 21 other noted authors, met in Chattanooga, TN to create the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Chattanooga is a city located in United States of America. ... The Fellowship of Southern Writers is a literary organization headquartered at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. ...

The University of Notre Dame awarded Percy its 1989 Laetare Medal, which is bestowed annually to a Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church, and enriched the heritage of humanity." ^[3] The University of Notre Dame IPA: is a Catholic[4] institution located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated section of St. ...

The National Endowment for the Humanities chose him as the winner for the 1989 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, for which he read, “The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind.”^[4] The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 (Pub. ...

Death and afterward

Walker Percy died of prostate cancer in 1990 eighteen days before his 74th birthday. Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...

He is buried on the grounds of St. Joseph's Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana.

Works

Novels

• The Moviegoer. New York: Knopf, 1961, reprinted, Avon, 1980.
• The Last Gentleman. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1966; reprinted, Avon, 1978.
• Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1971; reprinted, Avon, 1978.
• Lancelot. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1977.
• The Second Coming. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1980.
• The Thanatos Syndrome. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1987.

The Moviegoer is a 1961 novel by Walker Percy. ... The Last Gentleman is a 1966 novel by Walker Percy. ... The Second Coming is a novel by Walker Percy. ... The Thanatos Syndrome was Walker Percys last novel. ...

Nonfiction

• Bourbon. Winston-Salem, NC: Palaemon Press, 1982.
• The City of the Dead. Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1985.
• Conversations with Walker Percy.Lawson, Lewis A., and Victor A. Kramer, eds. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985.
• The Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy. Tolson, Jay, ed. New York: Center for Documentary Studies, 1996.
• Diagnosing the Modern Malaise. New Orleans: Faust, 1985.
• Going Back to Georgia. Athens: University of Georgia, 1978.
• How to Be an American Novelist in Spite of Being Southern and Catholic. Lafayette: University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1984.
• Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1983.
• The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1975.
• More Conversations with Walker Percy. Lawson, Lewis A., and Victor A. Kramer, eds. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.
• Novel-Writing in an Apocalyptic Time. New Orleans: Faust Publishing Company, 1986.
• Questions They Never Asked Me. Northridge, CA: Lord John Press, 1979.
• Signposts in a Strange Land. Samway, Patrick, ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1991.
• State of the Novel: Dying Art or New Science. New Orleans: Faust Publishing Company, 1988.
• A Thief of Peirce: The Letters of Kenneth Laine Ketner and Walker Percy. Samway, Patrick, ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995.

The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man is, How Queer Language is, and What One Has to Do with the Other is a collection of essays on semiotics written by Walker Percy and first published in 1975. ... Charles Sanders Peirce (IPA: /pɝs/), (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American polymath, physicist, and philosopher, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ...

See also

• William Alexander Percy

William Alexander Percy (1885-1942) is a poet from Greenville, Mississippi. ...

Percy Writers

• Sarah Dorsey
• Kate Ferguson
• Eleanor Percy Lee
• William Armstrong Percy, III
• Catherine Anne Warfield

Sarah Dorsey (d. ... Kate Ferguson hailed from two of the South’s most prominent families. ... Eleanor Percy Lee (1819-1849), daughter of Sarah Percy and Nathaniel Ware, co-authored two books of poetry with her sister Catherine Anne Warfield and is thus the literary ancestor of famed southern writers William Alexander Percy and Walker Percy. ... William Armstrong Percy, III, (born 10 December 1933) is a professor, historian, encyclopedist, and gay activist. ... Daughter of Sarah Percy and Nathaniel Ware, Catherine Anne Warfield (1816-1877), a Southern writer of poetry and fiction, who along with her sister Eleanor, was first in the line of Percy family authors. ...

Other Percys

• LeRoy Percy
• Thomas George Percy

United States Senator from Mississippi from 1911 to 1913, LeRoy Percy (November 9, 1860 – December 24, 1929) was a wealthy planter from Greenville, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...

Notes

Further reading

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Walker Percy

• Allen, William Rodney. Walker Percy: A Southern Wayfarer. (University Press of Mississippi, 1986)
• Bio at The Fellowship of Southern Writers
• The Walker Percy Project: An Internet Literary Center
• Walker Percy: From Pen to Print, a 2002 exhibit at the Rare Book Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill.
• Harwell, David Horace, Walker Percy Remembered: A Portrait in the Words of Those Who Knew Him. (University of North Carolina Press, 2006)
• Samway, Patrick, Walker Percy: A Life. (Loyola Press USA, 1999)
• Wyatt-Brown, Bertram House of Percy: Honor, Melancholy and Imagination in a Southern Family. (Oxford University Press USA, 1996)
• Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. The Literary Percys: Family History, Gender & The Southern Imagination. (Athens and London: University of Georgia Press, 1994)
• Tolson, Jay, Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992)
• Coles, Robert, Walker Percy: An American Search. (Little, Brown & Co, 1979)