Walker Percy
Covington, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Marker Inscription
Walker Percy (1916 - 1990). Covington resident, where he wrote, among others, Lancelot, The Second Coming, Love in the Ruins, The Thanatos Syndrome, The Last Gentleman, and The Moviegoer, which won the National Book Award for fiction. Co-founder Fellowship of Southern Writers, graduate of the University of North Carolina, buried at St. Joseph Abbey, 3 miles north.
The Story
Novelist Walker Percy (1916–1990) made his home in Covington, where he wrote much of his acclaimed fiction, including Lancelot, The Second Coming, Love in the Ruins, The Thanatos Syndrome, The Last Gentleman, and The Moviegoer, winner of the National Book Award. A co-founder of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a University of North Carolina graduate, he explored faith, alienation, and the modern South. He is buried at nearby St. Joseph Abbey.
Why it matters
Percy stands among the major voices of postwar Southern literature, and this quiet Louisiana town shaped the settings and sensibility of his work.
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Related people
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