(1916-1990)
Walker Percy was born May 28, 1916, in Birmingham, Alabama. When he was quite young, he and his two brothers moved in with William Alexander Percy, an older cousin who lived in Greenville, Mississippi. In 1941, Walker received his (medical) doctor's degree at Columbia; but while he was working as a pathologist at Johns Hopkins, he contracted tuberculosis. Later, back in Mississippi, he settled in Covington, just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, and began to write novels and essays. By his death on May 10, 1990, he had established himself as the foremost novelist of ideas in the U. S.
Percy has the distinction of being the only major American 'novelist of ideas'. William Faulkner, our greatest experimenter of 'narrative development', and the great prose stylist, was not into 'ideas'; Ernest Hemingway experimented with the 'stream-of-consciousness' method of developing his 'biographical fiction', and John Steinbeck was simply the best 'story-teller' in modern American literature.
What is so amazing about Walker Percy is that he was able to accomplish so much with so little. The total list of his publications can be 'counted on the two hands, with fingers left over'. Begin with The Moviegoer (New York: Knopf, 1961); then give that a little time to disgest before tackling The Last Gentleman (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1966). By this time you will be hooked, and somewhat ready to proceed with Love in the Ruins (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)
His philosophical writings will help you understand his novels:
The Message in the Bottle, New York: Farrar, Straus, 1975.
Lost in the Cosmos. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1983.
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