Walker Percy

Walker Percy

Percy in 1987
Percy in 1987
Born(1916-05-28)May 28, 1916
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
DiedMay 10, 1990(1990-05-10) (aged 73)
Covington, Louisiana, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA)
Columbia University (MD)
Period1961–1990
GenrePhilosophical novelist, memoir, essays
Literary movementSouthern Gothic
Notable worksThe Moviegoer
Spouse
Mary Bernice Townsend
(m. 1946)
Children2
RelativesWilliam Alexander Percy

Walker Percy, OblSB (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is noted for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans; his first, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction.[1]

Trained as a physician at Columbia University, Percy decided to become a writer after a bout of tuberculosis. He devoted his literary life to the exploration of "the dislocation of man in the modern age."[2] His work displays a combination of existential questioning, Southern sensibility, and deep Catholic faith. He had a lifelong friendship with author and historian Shelby Foote and spent much of his life in Covington, Louisiana, where he died of prostate cancer in 1990.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference nba1962 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Kimball, Roger. Existentialism, Semiotics and Iced Tea, Review of Conversations with Walker Percy New York Times, August 4, 1985. Retrieved 2010-06-12.