Walker Percy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Walker Percy
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Percy in 1987
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| Born | May 28, 1916 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | May 10, 1990 (aged 73) Covington, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA) Columbia University (MD) |
| Period | 1961–1990 |
| Genre | Philosophical novelist, memoir, essays |
| Literary movement | Southern Gothic |
| Notable works | The Moviegoer |
| Spouse |
Mary Bernice Townsend
(m. 1946) |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | William Alexander Percy |
Walker Percy was an American writer who lived from 1916 to 1990. He was very interested in philosophy, which is the study of big questions about life. He also studied semiotics, which is about signs and symbols.
Percy is famous for his philosophical novels, many of which are set near New Orleans. His first novel, The Moviegoer, won a major award called the National Book Award for Fiction.
He first trained to be a doctor at Columbia University. But after getting sick with tuberculosis, he decided to become a writer instead. His books often explore how people feel lost or out of place in the modern world. His writing combines deep thinking, a Southern style, and strong Catholic faith.
Percy was lifelong friends with author Shelby Foote. He lived most of his life in Covington, Louisiana, where he passed away in 1990.
Contents
Walker Percy's Early Life and School
Walker Percy was born on May 28, 1916, in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the oldest of three brothers. His family had roots in Mississippi and were Protestant. His great-uncle, LeRoy Percy, was a US senator.
When Walker was 13, his father passed away. His mother then moved the family to her mother's home in Athens, Georgia. Two years later, his mother also passed away. Walker and his two younger brothers, Roy and Phin, were then raised by their cousin, William Alexander Percy. He was a lawyer and poet living in Greenville, Mississippi.
Walker grew up as an agnostic, meaning he wasn't sure if God existed. But he was connected to a Presbyterian church. William Percy introduced him to many famous writers and poets.
Walker went to Greenville High School. Later, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He studied chemistry there and wrote essays for the school's magazine. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1937.
A Lifelong Friendship with Shelby Foote
After moving to Greenville, Mississippi, in 1930, Walker Percy met Shelby Foote. Shelby was a neighbor his age, and they quickly became best friends for life. When they were young men, Percy and Foote wanted to meet the famous writer William Faulkner. They visited his home in Oxford, Mississippi. But Percy was so amazed by Faulkner that he couldn't speak. He just sat in the car while Foote and Faulkner had a lively chat.
Percy and Foote went to both Greenville High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill together. They remained close friends during their time at college. They went on dates, visited nearby Durham, North Carolina, and even traveled to New York City. When Percy graduated in 1937, Foote left college and went back to Greenville.
In the late 1940s, Percy and Foote started writing letters to each other. This continued until Percy's death in 1990. Their letters were later published in a book.
Medical Training and Illness
Walker Percy earned his medical degree (M.D.) from Columbia University in New York City in 1941. He planned to become a psychiatrist. In 1942, he started working at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
However, that same year, he caught tuberculosis while working at the hospital. At that time, the only treatment was rest. Even though his illness was not severe, he had to stop his medical career. He left the city to recover.
Percy spent several years resting at the Trudeau Sanitorium in Saranac Lake, New York. This was in the Adirondack Mountains. He spent his time sleeping, reading, and listening to news about World War II on the radio. He wished he could be fighting in the war like his brothers.
During this time, Percy read many books. He read works by existentialist thinkers like Søren Kierkegaard and authors like Fyodor Dostoevsky. He started to wonder if science could truly explain all the big questions about human life. He also began attending Mass every morning.
In August 1944, Percy was well enough to leave the sanatorium. He later returned to Columbia as a pathology instructor. But in 1945, an X-ray showed his tuberculosis had returned. He had to go back to a sanatorium.
Years later, Percy looked back on his illness with some humor. He said, "I was the happiest man ever to contract tuberculosis, because it enabled me to get out of Bellevue and quit medicine."
Walker Percy's Writing Career
Starting as a Writer
Walker Percy began writing in 1935, during his second year at Chapel Hill. He wrote four pieces for The Carolina Magazine. These early writings showed his interest in both the good and bad parts of modern culture. His experiences at Chapel Hill even inspired parts of his first novel, The Moviegoer. The main character, Binx Bolling, is described as having a "dry wit," just like Percy was known for in his college fraternity.
In the late 1940s, Percy started writing a novel called The Charterhouse, but it was never published. He also worked on another novel, The Gramercy Winner, which also remained unpublished.
Percy's career as a Catholic writer began in 1956. He wrote an essay about race for a Catholic magazine called Commonweal. In this essay, "Stoicism in the South," he spoke out against segregation in the South. He also called for Christian ideas to play a bigger role in Southern life.
Later Works and Influence
After many years of writing and working with his editor, Percy published his first novel, The Moviegoer, in 1961. Percy later explained that the book was about "a young man who had all the advantages of a cultivated old-line southern family... but who nevertheless feels himself quite alienated." This means the character felt disconnected from both the old Southern ways and new American life.
His later novels include The Last Gentleman (1966), Love in the Ruins (1971), Lancelot (1977), The Second Coming (1980), and The Thanatos Syndrome (1987). Percy often found ideas for his stories in his own life and family history. For example, The Thanatos Syndrome includes a story from his uncle's family chronicle. The idea for The Second Coming came after an old college friend visited him and shared his own struggles.
Percy also wrote nonfiction books about semiotics and existentialism. His most popular nonfiction work is Lost in the Cosmos.
In 1975, Percy published a collection of essays called The Message in the Bottle: How Queer Man Is, How Queer Language Is, and What One Has to Do with the Other. In this book, he tried to connect religious ideas with science and human behavior. Scholars say Percy used stories and language in a special way to show the struggles of everyday people.
Percy also helped and taught younger writers. While teaching at Loyola University of New Orleans, he played a key role in getting John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces published in 1980. This was more than ten years after Toole had passed away. The book, set in New Orleans, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction after it was published.
In 1987, Percy and 21 other famous authors met to create the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
Walker Percy's Personal Life
Walker Percy married Mary Bernice Townsend, a medical technician, on November 7, 1946. Both of them studied Catholicism and became members of the Roman Catholic Church in 1947.
They adopted their first daughter, Mary Pratt. Later, they had a second daughter, Ann, who became deaf when she was young. The family settled in Covington, Louisiana, a suburb across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. Percy's wife and one of their daughters later owned a bookstore, where Percy often worked in an office upstairs.
Illness and Passing
Walker Percy had an operation for prostate cancer on March 10, 1988. However, the cancer had already spread to nearby tissues. In July 1989, he volunteered to try experimental medicines at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He joined a study to test new drugs for cancer patients.
In his letters to his friend Shelby Foote, Percy shared his frustration with the constant travel and hospital stays. He wrote, "Hospitals are no place for anyone, let alone a sick man." Even though the side effects of the treatment were difficult, Percy had an important realization. He saw children with cancer waiting in the hospital lounges. He decided to continue the treatment as long as he could. He hoped that the results of his treatment might help others in the future.
Walker Percy passed away from prostate cancer at his home in Covington in 1990. He was almost 74 years old. He is buried at St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana. He had become a special member of the Abbey's religious community shortly before his death.
Legacy and Awards
How Walker Percy Influenced Others
Walker Percy's writing often featured characters who felt lost or out of place. This influenced other writers from the Southern United States. According to experts, Percy's ideas helped change Southern literature. Authors began to write about characters who felt "estranged" or disconnected. His writing shows how to combine history, religion, science, and the modern world in stories. Scholars say that Percy's frequent use of characters facing spiritual loneliness helped introduce new ways of writing in the South after World War II.
Awards and Honors
- In 1962, Percy won the National Book Award for Fiction for his first novel, The Moviegoer.
- In 1985, he received the St. Louis Literary Award.
- In 1989, the University of Notre Dame gave Percy the Laetare Medal. This award is given each year to a Catholic who has made great contributions to arts and sciences and shown the ideals of the Church.
- Also in 1989, the National Endowment for the Humanities chose him for the Jefferson Lecture. He gave a speech called "The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind."
- Loyola University New Orleans has many old papers and collections related to Percy's life and work.
- In 2019, a historical marker was placed in Greenville, Mississippi, to honor Percy's contributions to literature.
Works by Walker Percy
Novels
- The Moviegoer. New York: Knopf, 1961; reprinted Avon, 1980 — winner of the National Book Award
- 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.
Nonfiction Books
- 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.
- Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1983.
- Conversations with Walker Percy. Lawson, Lewis A., and Victor A. Kramer, eds. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985.
- Signposts in a Strange Land. Samway, Patrick, ed. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1991.
- More Conversations with Walker Percy. Lawson, Lewis A., and Victor A. Kramer, eds. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.
- The Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy. Tolson, Jay, ed. New York: Center for Documentary Studies, 1996.
- Symbol and Existence: A Study in Meaning: Explorations of Human Nature by Walker Percy. Edited by Ketner, Kenneth Laine, Karey Lea Perkins, Rhonda Reneé McDonell, Scott Ross Cunningham. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2019.
See also
In Spanish: Walker Percy para niños
- William Alexander Percy
