Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy (Chapel Hill Books)

By Jay Tolson

Book Overview

When Walker Percy died in 1990, little was known about this intensely private man whose five novels and countless essays had earned him the reputation as one of America's greatest writers. Based on extensive interviews and written with access to Percy's letters and manuscripts, Pilgrim in the Ruins is the first major biography of the writer, an authoritative portrait that brings Percy alive even as it illuminates his distinguished body of work, from The Moviegoer through The Thanatos Syndrome . First published in hardcover in 1992, Jay Tolson's masterful biography is available now for the first time in paperback. With a novelist's eye for character and the judgment of an informed critic, Tolson captures the lifelong drama of genius, always attentive to its artistic, psychological, and spiritual dimensions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807844470
• ISBN13: 9780807844472
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 1.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

On Target . . .

Percy was never terribly anxious to talk about himself, so it was a joy to read Tolson's well-researched account after devouring all of Percy's books. Where Percy has left only hints, Tolson delves more deeply to uncover Percy's troubled childhood which was redeemed in his teenage years by his Uncle Will, author of Lanterns on the Levee. If you read Walker Percy, you undoubtedly find you want to know more and more about the enigmatic genius. Tolson's biography of him fills in a lot of gaps.

A Biography Worthy of Its Subject

This book is one of the finest I have ever read. I don't say that lightly; I have read my share of books and devoured anything written by or about Percy.Tolson is worthy of the novelist whose life he portrays. He writes beautifully and takes the reader through the many periods of Percy's life. The biography is particulalry strong with the formative influences that shaped the novelist's life and world view-- the suicides, the depressions, both the "Old" and "New" South, his Uncle Will, Shelby Foote, modern America, religion, race, etc.The book impacted me more than any other I have read, and I would not be the same person today without it. There can be no finer praise for a work; 5 stars seems so insufficient.How fortunate we are Percy had Tolson as a biographer.