Walker Percy (May 28, 1916 – May 10, 1990) was an American writer whose interests included philosophy and authentic semiotics. His first novel, 'The Moviegoer', won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction.
He was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the first of three sons to LeRoy Pratt Percy and Martha Susan Phinizy. In 1929, when Percy was 13, his father committed suicide, and two years later his mother died when she drove a car off a country bridge. Percy regarded this death as another suicide. He and his brothers were taken in by their first cousin, a bachelor lawyer and poet living in Greenville, Mississippi.
Percy attended Greenville High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in chemistry. He wrote essays and book reviews for the school's "Carolina Magazine". He graduated with a B.A. in 1937. While living in Greenville, he became lifelong friends with Shelby Foote, who became a noted Southern historian.
Percy received an M.D. from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1941, intending to become a psychiatrist, but he decided to become a writer instead after an extended bout of tuberculosis. He wrote a total of six novels during his career, including 'The Moviegoer', 'Love In The Ruins', 'Lancelot' (1977), 'The Second Coming' (1980), and 'The Thanatos Syndrome' (1987), along with scores of non-fiction essays & several other books.
'Love In The Ruins' was a speculative science fiction novel about Dr. Thomas More, namesake and descendant of Sir Thomas More (the author of 'Utopia'), a psychiatrist in a small town in Louisiana called "Paradise", at a time when American society is beginning to come apart at the seams. The U.S. has become progressively more fragmented between left and right, black and white, male and female, as social trends of the 1960's run to their logical extremes. The novel investigates and satirizes many facets of American society, including religion, sexuality, medical and scientific ethics, and race relations.
Walker Percy passed away in Covington, LA from prostate cancer, at age 73.
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Author's third book. Subtitled: "The Adventures Of A Bad Catholic At A Time Near The End Of The World".
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Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1971 (copyright).
1st Edition, 1st Printing.
First Printing, 1971 - stated.
Jacket art by Guy Fleming.
Near Fine copy, in a Near Fine dust jacket.
Black cloth, dyed top-edge, embossed front cover (author's initials), orange end-papers, gilt letters. Very minor spine bumping, head & foot, corners sharp. Very faint sun-fading at the head & foot (mostly at the foot), where the jacket failed to protect the book. The dyed top-edge is also lightly sun-faded. Previous seller's price ("2."), at the top corner of the front free fly - no other markings. Pages are crisp & white throughout. All gilt is bright. Book is tightly bound, with just a bit of slant & a slight separation at the head, but still tightly bound. Both hinges are sound. The dust jacket has very minor edge-wear, mainly at the top & bottom of the spine. One small tear (1/4") has been closed at the top back corner of the back cover. The publisher's original price of $7.95 is intact, at the top of the front flap. Still bright & shiny - now in a BroDart protective sleeve. 403 Pages.
Product code: Love In The Ruins, by Walker Percy. 1st authentic Edition, 1st printing.