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Walker Percy

ウォーカー・パーシー

Wōkā Pāshī

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1916-05-28 （Birmingham, Alabama）
Died
1990-05-10 （Covington, Louisiana） age 73
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Roman Catholic Baptized in 1947
Residence History
Covington, Louisiana → New Orleans area, Louisiana → Greenville, Mississippi → Saranac Lake, New York

Career

Occupations
Writer, Novelist, Essayist, Critic, Teacher (occasional)
Active Years
1961-1990
Affiliations
Loyola University New Orleans (teaching; archival collections), Fellowship of Southern Writers (charter member)
Memberships
Information Council of the Americas (INCA)
Influenced By
Søren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann
Influenced
John Kennedy Toole, Contemporary Southern writers (influenced)

Education

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
College of Arts and Sciences / Chemistry
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1933–1937
Year of Graduation: 1937
Country: United States
Contributed to the Carolina Magazine while a student
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
College of Physicians and Surgeons / Medicine
Degree: M.D.
Period: 1938–1941
Year of Graduation: 1941
Country: United States
Intended to specialize in psychiatry; abandoned medical career after tuberculosis

Awards

National Book Award for Fiction
1962
Work: The Moviegoer
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: 受賞
St. Louis Literary Award
1985
Organization: Saint Louis University Library Associates
Result: 受賞
Laetare Medal
1989
Organization: University of Notre Dame
Result: 受賞
Jefferson Lecture
1989
Work: The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Result: 選出・講演

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Moviegoer

1961 Philosophical novel / Southern Gothic 224 pages

Set in and around New Orleans, it follows Binx Bolling as he confronts modern alienation and existential questions, seeking meaning through everyday acts and moviegoing.

AlienationFaith and religiositySelf-searchingConflict between Southern tradition and modernity

The Last Gentleman

1966 Novel / Southern literature 256 pages

A narrative exploring the protagonist's inner life and family history, depicting Southern family legacy and personal dislocation.

Family historyMemoryIdentity

Love in the Ruins

1971 Satirical novel / speculative elements 304 pages

Using satire and dark humor in a near-future setting, it interrogates social maladies and ethical dilemmas of modern civilization.

Critique of civilizationEthicsTension between science and religion

The Thanatos Syndrome

1987 Thriller / Social critique 368 pages

Examines ethical decay and social breakdown under the guise of medicine and science, addressing eugenics and senicide among other themes.

Medical ethicsCritique of eugenicsSocial collapse

Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book

1983 Essays / Philosophy 192 pages

A partly humorous collection of pieces reflecting on human selfhood, language and semiotics.

SemioticsSelf-awarenessOntology

Bibliography

  • The Moviegoer (1961)
  • The Last Gentleman (1966)
  • Love in the Ruins (1971)
  • Lancelot (1977)
  • The Second Coming (1980)
  • The Thanatos Syndrome (1987)
  • Lost in the Cosmos (1983)
  • The Message in the Bottle (1975)
  • Various essays and shorter texts

Adaptations

  • Walker Percy: A Documentary

Translations of Works

  • Works translated into multiple languages (Japanese translations exist)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Concise, witty prose with philosophical reflectionInfluence of Southern GothicSemiotic perspective
Recurring Motifs
Alienation and lonelinessFaith and repentanceMismatch of language and meaningFamily and Southern inheritance

Health

  • Tuberculosis
    1942–1944（入退院・長期療養）
    Forced to abandon a medical career and helped precipitate his turn to writing.
  • Prostate cancer (with metastasis)
    1988–1990
    Underwent surgery in 1988; enrolled in experimental treatment in 1989; died of the disease in 1990.

Legacy

Walker Percy is regarded as a writer who fused Southern tradition with modern existential anxieties. He explored religious and philosophical themes in fiction and essays and influenced contemporary Southern literature.

Museums

  • Loyola University New Orleans Archives (Walker Percy Collection) New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
  • UNC-Chapel Hill Southern Historical Collection (Walker Percy Papers) Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States

Academic Societies

  • Fellowship of Southern Writers (charter member)

Archives

  • Loyola University New Orleans, Special Collections & Archives (Walker Percy materials)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Southern Historical Collection (Walker Percy papers)

In Popular Culture

  • Mississippi Writers Trail historical marker installed in Greenville, Mississippi

Quotes

  • I was the happiest man ever to contract tuberculosis, because it enabled me to get out of Bellevue and quit medicine.
    Source: More Conversations with Walker Percy (quoted) (1993)
  • Hospitals are no place for anyone, let alone a sick man.
    Source: Walker Percy's correspondence (to Shelby Foote)

Trivia

  • Converted to Roman Catholicism in 1947 with his wife.
  • Adopted a first daughter and later had a biological daughter who became deaf.
  • While teaching at Loyola University New Orleans he helped get John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces published.
  • Became a secular oblate of St. Joseph Benedictine Abbey late in life.
  • Associated with the anti-communist Information Council of the Americas (INCA).