Tito Perdue

Born in 1938 in Sewell, Chile, Tito Perdue was brought up in Anniston, Alabama, where he remained until he graduated as an alumnus of Indian Springs School, a private school for boys located in central Alabama. He attended Antioch College in Ohio for one year before being expelled for cohabiting with his future wife, Judy Clark, to whom Perdue is still married. They have a daughter, Melanie, two grandsons, and one great grandson.

Tito continued his schooling at the University of Texas (B.A. – double major in English and History) and Indiana University (M.L.S. - Librarianship; M.A. – Modern European History) but took several breaks from university life to try New York City, the land of his dreams. These episodes endured each for about one year before he succeeded in escaping, and both ventures have been lovingly described in his novels. After college, Perdue worked for some years as a librarian at the University of Iowa, and Iowa State University, before trying New York for a third time at SUNY/Binghamton. This experience lasted one and a half years and led to his return to his beloved South to accept a job at Emory University in Atlanta. Within a year, at age 44, Perdue was fired, and decided to do what he had always most desired – to write novels, an ambition which had teased Perdue since he first became acquainted with the novels of Thomas Wolfe in high school and traveled to Ashville, N.C. to speak with people who had known that author.

Perdue himself is an Eagle scout, and has never lost a fight. He enjoys the music of Wagner, his favorite poetry is the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam, and the novels of William Gay and Larry Brown. He considers the "Iliad" to be the greatest book ever written, Jeff Davis to be the greatest president, and his favorite historical epoch is Cenozoic. His favorite Planet is Uranus.

Perdue’s novels are notable for their lyrical prose, originality, and for their wit, which can be venomous and hilarious at once. He has been compared to Faulkner, Beckett, Borges, Patchen, and Céline, and more recently to Cervantes, whose best known protagonist resembles Perdue’s Leland Pefley in a number of ways. Lee has also been compared to John Kennedy O’Toole’s Ignatius in "A Confederacy of Dunces".

According to "The New York Times Book Review" of Lee, “ [Perdue’s] language is vitriolic and hallucinatory, yet surprisingly lucid, producing a portrait both exceedingly strange and troubling,” and in its review of "The New Austerities", "Publishers Weekly" assigned to Perdue “magically evocative descriptive powers, pungent wit and iconoclastic point of view.” Again of Lee, "Kirkus" said, “Perdue writes convincingly and iconoclastically… a marvelous black comedy that is sometimes as astringent as John Yount’s "Toots in Solitude"…” "The New England Review of Books" claims that Lee has “all of the makings of a classic.” Jim Knipfel of the "New York Press" wrote, “Tito Perdue is, without question, one of the most important contemporary Southern writers we have — and should certainly be considered among the most important American writers of the early 21st century.” Read the whole review at the [http://www.nypress.com/16/32/news&columns/eslackjaw.cfm "New York Press" website.]

Books

Perdue’s "Sweet-Scented Manuscript" was completed within a year of his ‘retirement,’ but not published until 2004 by Baskerville Press. This magical novel is a love story that attempts to convey the impressions and yearnings of an 18-year-old boy, Leland Pefley, in his first exploration of the world. Perdue’s next novel, "Lee", was about the same Leland Pefley, now an old man, bitter, hostile, angry at a world that no longer recognized the values and culture of the 1950’s. He spewed venom at those who, surrounded by beauty, culture and literature, didn’t bother to avail themselves of it. The book was Tito’s first published volume (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1991). Following this, "The New Austerities" (Peachtree Press, 1994) depicts Lee Pefley’s flight from New York City back to his ancestral home in Alabama. That same year, Baskerville Press published Perdue’s "Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture", a strange fictional account of an Alabama man, school teacher, rural route mail carrier, and farmer. This character, Benjamin, is loosely based on the life of Perdue’s maternal grandfather. In 2007 [http://www.overlookpress.com Overlook Press] reprinted "Lee" in paperback and issued "Fields of Asphodel", the story of Lee Pefley’s afterlife search for the wife who predeceased him.

"Lee" – Four Walls Eight Windows, 1991

"The New Austerities" – Peachtree Press, 1994 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=978-1561450862 ISBN 978-1561450862]

"Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture" – Baskerville Press, 1994 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=978-1880909249 ISBN 978-1880909249]

"The Sweet-Scented Manuscript" – Baskerville Press, 2004 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=978-1880909683 ISBN 978-1880909683]

"Lee" (paperback reprint) - Overlook Press, 2007 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=978-1585678723 ISBN 978-1585678723]

"Fields of Asphodel" – Overlook Press, 2007 [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Booksources&isbn=978-1585678716 ISBN 978-1585678716]

Links

[http://www.titoperdue.com Official Website]

[http://www.authorsden.com/titoperdue Author's Den Profile]