Web Signposts: Walker Percy Culture
A Collection of Website Links to "Percy Culture"
Directory
Walker Percy inspired theater, films, music, conferences, festivals, articles, interviews, and more. Select a directory button to visit websites that feature content related to the listed category. All links on this page open in a new window and were compiled to record the worldwide cultural "signposts" of Percy's legacy. Since the Web changes all the time, the Project cannot be responsible for broken links or copyrighted material you find. Report broken links through the Project's contact page.
Of Unique Interest
On Language
"The scientist thinks about interaction, energy exchanges, but the scientist who writes a paper can't explain what he's doing when he actually writes that paper. He's writing a paper for somebody else to read, yet we literally don't know what happens when two people are talking about something — we don't know what language is....when human beings suddenly put two words together and make a sentence — something very strange happens. Bam! That's a world out there."
— Walker Percy
- National Public Radio Article
- Adam Frank, an astrophysicist at the University of Rochester, wrote "An Existential Guide for When You're Really 'Lost'" for NPR on July 30, 2012. It is based on Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos. - Rock and Read: Will Percy Interviews Bruce Springsteen
- Will Percy, Walker's nephew, developed a relationship with the rock-and-roll musician from New Jersey after Walker wrote a fan letter. (Percy and Springsteen are Catholics.) The transcribed interview from 1995 was published by DoubleTake Magazine. - Foote & Percy: Giants of Letters, Lifelong Friends
- Scott Simon of NPR talks with Shelby Foote about the historian and author's 60-year friendship with Walker Percy. Foote died in 2005, but their letters survives in The Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy.
Published Articles & Short Stories by Walker Percy
- The Fateful Rift: The San Andreas Fault in the Modern Mind
- ManWithoutQualities.com, an online magazine, published an amended version of Walker Percy's Jefferson Lecture to the National Endowment for the Humanities from May 3, 1989. The Jefferson Lecturer is the highest honor the federal government can bestow upon humanities figures. - Unearthing A 'New' Short Story By Walker Percy (National Public Radio)
- Linton Weeks of NPR writes about the discovery, in 2009, of a previously unknown short story by Walker Percy titled, "A Detective Story." This is not a link to the story, but to a story about the story. -
"Young Nuclear Physicist"
- The January/February 1999 issue (No. 25) of the Oxford American magazine includes a never-before-published short story by Walker Percy titled, "Young Nuclear Physicist." The story is about a Southern gentleman looking for love in New York. The magazine cover features a full-color, full-length photograph of Percy. - "Bourbon" by Walker Percy
- This essay was re-publishished in Signposts in a Strange Land (2000) with an original appearance in Esquire in 1975. It contains Percy's humorous thoughts about drinking bourbon from the perspective of his characteristic wry wit. - A View of Abortion with Something to Offend Everyone
- An essay by Walker Percy was published by the New York Times on June 8, 1981. Percy was never known to lack strong opinions.
Published Interviews
- Surviving His Own Bad Habits
- DoubleTake Magazine published an undated, previously unpublished interview with Walker Percy by Robyn Leary. - Paris Review Interview
- Zoltajn Abajdi-Nagy interviewed Walker Percy by mail for the Paris Review (Walker Percy, The Art of Fiction, No. 97) in the summer of 1987. Read the transcribed interview on their website. - An Interview with Walker Percy about Thomas Merton (PDF)
- Merton.org published the transcription of this interview by Victor A. Kramer and Dewey Weiss Kramer from May 1983. - Walker Percy Interviews Walker Percy
- The Q Ideas website printed an interview from "Questions They Never Asked Me," which appears in Conversations with Walker Percy, published September 1, 1985. - Walker Percy Talks about Kierkegaard: An Annotated Interview
- Chicago Journals previewed Bradley R. Dewey's The Journal of Religion (Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 273-298) from July 3, 1974. The main part of the article is an interview with Walker Percy, but you have to buy it to read it.
Published Articles about Percy
- Walker Percy's Obituary
- The New York Times printed this obituary following Walker Percy's death on May 11, 1990. - Obituary for Mary Townsend Percy
- "Mary Townsend Percy, widow of writer Walker Percy, dies at 90." The Times-Picayune printed these words with the obituary on September 6, 2012. - New York Times Articles Related to Percy
- The New York Times archives all its articles. This link provides a list of the news stories and commentaries about Walker Percy, as published in the paper. - Walker Percy and Suicide
- John F. Desmond published this article in First Principles Journal in 2005. It's a lengthy examination of suicide in American society and in particular Walker Percy's attitude about it through his writings. - Walker Percy: An American Apologist
- This CS Lewis Review article on Walker Percy by Dr. Bruce L. Edwards was posted on October 13, 2008. It's a review of Percy's life, work, and success. - Whither Walker Percy?
- The First Things website published this article by Assistant Professor Micah Mattix on May 10, 2010, the 20th anniversary of Percy's death. First Things bills itself as "America's most influential journal of religion and public life." - Percy and Sagan in the Cosmos
- On the 30th anniversary of Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book in 2013, Books & Culture, A Christian Review, published this article by Professor Alan Jacobs. Jacobs examines the connection between the two men. - Walker Percy's American Apocalypse
- The Library of Law and Liberty published an article by Professor H. Collin Messer on July 11, 2014, in which Messer analyzes an unpublished Walker Percy essay from the late 1950s titled, "Which Way Existentialism." Percy's essay is his assessment of contemporary American life. - The Doubtful Pilgrim
- The New York Times published this lengthy book review of Walker Percy: A Life by Patrick Samway, dated June 8, 1997. Robert Coles, M.D., who wrote his own Percy biography, penned the review.
Walker Percy Center for Writing + Publishing
(Section note: no active programs as of end of 2016. All links as follows are no longer available.)- The Walker Percy Center For Writing + Publishing (Loyola University, New Orleans)
Founded in 2010, the The Walker Percy Center For Writing + Publishing offers public and high school student workshops, a reading series, periodic conferences and publications, and other resources and links related to Percy. The Center is located at Loyola University, New Orleans, where Percy taught for a period. The Center offers Community Creative Writing Classes through The Loyola Writing Institute. - Inaugural Walker Percy Center Conference Announcement (2011)
- A New Orleans website, BroadwayWorld.com, announces the inaugural Walker Percy Center Conference. The conference celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Moviegoer. An overview of the conference, including photographs, is available through the Walker Percy Center website. - Second Walker Percy Center Conference: Still Lost in the Cosmos (2013)
- The Walker Percy Center for Writing + Publishing posts this overview of the second Walker Percy Conference as dedicated to the theme Still Lost in the Cosmos: Walker Percy & the 21st Century. The link includes a listing of the panel discussions and related events of the conference. - Walker Percy Prize in Short Fiction and Related Center Publications
- From 2010 to 2014, the Center and The New Orleans Review sponsored this contest to find well-crafted, dynamic writing that demonstrated attention to language and that engages, surprises, and moves emotions. This website page shows the past winners along with publications the Center has produced.
Places to Visit
- The Walker Percy Serenity Circle Garden and Bronze Statue (St. Tammany Library, Madisonville, La.)
- The St. Tammany Parish Branch Library in Madisonville recognizes Percy through its outdoor Serenity Circle Garden and Walker Percy Reading Room. A life-sized bronze statue of Percy by Covington artist Bill Binnings was installed in 2016 in the garden in celebration of the centennial of his birth. Visitors are welcomed. - St. Joseph Abbey Cemetery
- The cemetery at the St. Joseph's Abbey in St. Benedict, LA, is the final resting place for both Walker Percy and his wife Bunt. - The Maple Street Bookshop
- The Maple Street Bookshop at 7529 Maple Street in New Orleans was founded in 1964. The bookstore hosted many Walker Percy readings and signings. - The Southern Literary Trail: Greenville
- The Southern Literary Trail highlights Greenville, MS, and the Walker Percy-Shelby Foote connection. Both grew up in Greenville and remained lifelong friends.
Public Events: Festivals, Conferences, & Symposia
- Walker Percy Weekend
- The annual Walker Percy Weekend in St. Francisville, LA, founded in 2014, is billed as "a literary festival celebrating the writer and his works." The weekend includes food, drink, and music with lectures, discussions, and a crawfish boil, all in a Percy-esque mood to celebrate Percy's legacy. - Review of First Walker Percy Weekend
- The Advocate, a Louisiana publication, published Emily Cogburn's "Author Walker Percy's works celebrated at St. Francisville event" on June 9, 2014, following the first weekend festival. - The Walker Percy Centennial: Pilgrimage in Literature Conference (2016)
- The Southeast Christianity & Literature Conference was held at Montreat College near Black Mountain, NC, on April 28-30, 2016, to recognize Percy's literary contributions. The invited keynote speaker was Dr. Farrell O'Gorman, author of Peculiar Crossroads: Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Catholic Vision in Postwar Southern Fiction (LSU Press, 2004). -
- The St. Tammany Parish Library hosted a succession of yearly symposia dedicated to Percy from 1992 to 2010. They featured scholars' presentations, remembrances by friends, tours, and artistic performances. -
- The 11th Annual Oxford Conference for the Book was held on April 1-4, 2004, to examine the life and works of Walker Percy, National Book Award winner and one of the most influential American novelists and essayists of the 20th century. -
- Words & Music: A Literary Feast was staged in New Orleans on September 23-27, 1998. It saluted Walker Percy and examined "the long affair of writers with 'the literary landscape and mindscape' of New Orleans." [Editor's note: Oddly, most of the festival was cancelled due to a hurricane.]
Film
- Walker Percy: A Documentary Film
- New Orleans filmmaker Winston Riley created this hour-long biographical documentary on Walker Percy featuring numerous interviews with those who knew the author personally and commentators on his life. On this website, you can learn more about the 2011 film, as well as rent or buy it. - TV Interview with Win Riley and Rhoda K. Faust, Part 1 (8:59)
- New Orleans PBS affiliate WLAE aired a three-part interview by Tom Bagwell about the Walker Percy Center and Walker Percy: A Documentary Film. The link above is Part 1, uploaded on May 27, 2011. Also view Part 2 (8:37) and Part 3 (9:46). -
A Visit with Commentary to Percy's Gravesite (2:55)
- Leo Honeycutt leads his audience on an entertaining tour to Percy's gravesite. He talks about Percy, the Pulitzer Prize, and Shelby Foote. - Walker Percy, Personified (2:00)
- An interesting video of a kid, perhaps a student, pretending to be Walker Percy and explaining how he came to be a novelist. It was uploaded on June 25, 2012. - Love in the Ruins Trailer (2:21)
- An apparent video trailer for a film version of Love in the Ruins. Although almost convincing, it's touted as "coming soon to Mr. Hayden's class." It was uploaded on January 6, 2010. - Additional Resources: The Walker Percy Project's Multimedia Section
- Given Walker Percy's prominence as a literary figure, ample historical video footage of him exists from reliable and professional sources. Other video has surfaced that unveils his authentic and personal character. View them all from this page of the website.
Music
- Unearthed: Walker Percy's Fan Letter to Bruce Springsteen
- The Utne Reader, a literary magazine, published the actual text of Percy's letter sent in 1989 and Springsteen's reply to Bunt Percy in 1997. This article first appeared in June 2014. - Walker Percy and Bruce Springsteen
- This article by Carolyn Kellogg appeared in the LA Times on January 23, 2009. - Goodbye, Walker Percy (3:47)
- Singer/songwriter/bluesman Brooks Williams performs his instrumental song titled "Goodbye, Walker Percy" at Korks Wine Bar in Otley, West Yorkshire, on March 21, 2014.
Theater
- Lost in the Cosmos Theater Production [link forthcoming]
- This press release describes the 1995 world debut of a professional stageplay based on Percy's non-fiction work, Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book, staged in Atlanta, GA, and directed by Tom Key of Theatrical Outfit. - The Moviegoer Theater Production [link forthcoming]
- This press release describes the 2001 debut of a stageplay based on Percy's novel, The Moviegoer, in Atlanta, GA, directed by Tom Key of Theatrical Outfit.
- Public Mentions of Walker Percy on Facebook
- Facebook has a mixed bag of individual homepages that mention Percy. If you view these public posts of Facebook members, be alerted that a few misplaced references may include "Johnnie Walker Whiskey," "Percy Sledge," and "Percy Walker." - Walker Percy, Author
- This Walker Percy Facebook page, started on August 8, 2011, is organized by publisher OpenRoadMedia. It contains links, quotes, and much more regarding Walker Percy.