Walker Percy Remembered

A Portrait in the Words of Those Who Knew Him

David Horace Harwell

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9780807871539
  9780807830390
• eBook ISBN:
  9780807877487
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies
• Index: Literature

Walker Percy (1916–1990), the reclusive southern author most famous for his 1961 novel The Moviegoer, spent much of his adult life in Covington, Louisiana. In the spirit of traditional southern storytelling, this biography of Percy takes its shape from candid interviews with his family, close friends, and acquaintances. In thirteen interviews, we get to know Percy through his lifelong friend Shelby Foote, Percy’s brothers LeRoy and Phin, his former priest, his housekeeper, and former teachers, among others — all in their own words. Over the course of the interviews, readers learn intimate details of Percy’s writing process; his interaction with community members of different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds; and his commitment to civil rights issues. What emerges is a multidimensional portrait of Percy as a man, a friend, and a family member.

Index

• Barringer, Nikki, 60;
  • interview with, 27–44
• Barrios, Lee: interview with, 81–89
• Bellow, Saul, 24
• Boulware, James, 7, 53;
  • interview with, 13–26
• “Bourbon” (Percy), 25–26

• Campbell, Will, 137;
  • interview with, 141–53
• Catholicism, 70–73, 132, 135;
  • Bunt and, 7, 110–11;
  • ceremony and mystery of, 86–87;
  • Percy and, 7, 18, 34, 74, 92–96, 110–11, 128–29, 148–49, 162–64;
  • Percy as “Catholic novelist,” 7–8, 23–24, 148
• Charterhouse, The (Percy), 120, 177
• Civil rights, 8–9, 13, 50;
  • Percy’s involvement in, 23, 29–30, 52–54, 60–63, 67–68, 71, 73, 75–77, 116–17, 153
• Confederacy of Dunces, A (O’Toole), 48, 89, 109
• Covington, La., 13, 28, 45–47, 49–50, 58
• Cyprian, Carrie, 8;
  • interview with, 51–59

• D’Arc, Jeanne: interview with, 69–74

• Faulkner, William, 9, 97, 135, 138
• Faust, Rhoda: interview with, 90–101
• Foote, Shelby, 1–2, 28, 108, 142–43, 164–65;
  • compared with Percy, 20, 162;
  • interview with, 114–40
• Frick, Helen, 60–68
• Frick, Leroy: interview with, 60–68

• Gramercy Winner, The (Percy), 120, 177
• Great Books Group, 13, 27, 39, 40

• Head Start, 28, 29, 68
• Homosexu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Walker Percy Remembered
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction Looking for Walker Percy
• James Boulware, Former Priest
• Nikki Barringer, Attorney
• John “Red” Smith Jr., Tradesman & Raconteur
• Carrie Cyprian, Housekeeper
• Leroy Frick, Fellow Citizen
• Sister Jeanne D’Arc, Teacher
• Judy LaCour, Teacher
• Lee Barrios, Former Assistant
• Rhoda Faust, Bookshop Owner
• LeRoy Percy, Brother
• Shelby Foote, Author and Lifelong Friend
• Will Campbell, Bootleg Preacher
• Phin Percy, Brother
• Bibliography
• Index