- William Alexander Percy
William Alexander Percy (
May 14 ,1885 –January 21 ,1942 ), was a lawyer, planter and poet fromGreenville, Mississippi . His autobiography "Lanterns on the Levee" (Knopf 1941) became a bestseller. His fatherLeRoy Percy was the lastUnited States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature. And in that largelyProtestant state, William championed theRoman Catholicism of his French mother.Overview
Percy attended the Episcopal
University of the South inSewanee, Tennessee , apostbellum tradition in his family, spent a year inParis and then earned a law degree fromHarvard and practiced law in his father's firm in Greenville. He served in theUS Army inWorld War I , earning the rank of Captain and theCroix de Guerre . From 1925 to 1932 he edited the Yale Young Poets series, the first of its kind in the country. He also published four volumes of poetry himself with theYale University Press .A Southern man of letters, Percy befriended many fellow writers, Southern, Northern and European, including
William Faulkner . He socialized withLangston Hughes and other people in and about theHarlem Renaissance . Will was a sort of godfather to theFugitives , orSouthern Agrarians , asJohn Crowe Ransom ,Allen Tate andRobert Penn Warren were often called, at Vanderbilt.Percy's family was plagued with
suicide s, including his first cousin LeRoy Pratt Percy. William adopted his cousin's children,Walker Percy and two siblings, LeRoy and Phin after their parents' death. LeRoy went on to marry Sarah Farish, the exquisite daughter of Will Percy's law partner, Hazelwood Farish and took charge of the Percy family plantation, Trail Lake. Phin married and moved to New Orleans to practice law.Percy's most well known work is his memoir, "Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son" (Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1941). His other works include the text of "They Cast Their Nets in Galilee," which is included in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 (Hymn 661), and the Collected Poems (Knopf 1943). One piece by Percy is included under the name A.W. Percy in Men and Boys, an anonymous anthology of
Uranian poetry (New York, 1934).A friend of
Herbert Hoover from the Belgium Relief Effort during the early years of World War I, he was put in charge of relief during the great flood of 1927, when an area larger than allNew England (minusMaine ) was inundated. During the flood, thousands of African-Americans fleeing inundated farms and plantations sought refuge on the levee in Greenville. Percy believed that they needed to be evacuated to Vicksburg, Mississippi and ships were prepared to remove them. However, local planters, including Percy's own father, opposed this decision, believing that if the African-Americans were removed from the area, they would never return. Percy capitulated and the ships left Greenville empty. Thereafter, conditions on the levee deteriorated and Percy received his share of negative press. He later resigned his post and left for a trip toJapan the following day.The William Alexander Percy Library in
Greenville, Mississippi is named for him.Percy Family
References
*Barry, John. "Rising Tide". Simon & Schuster, 1998. ISBN 0684840022
*Percy, William Alexander. "Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son". Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1941. ISBN 0807100722
*Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. "The House of Percy: Honor, Melancholy, and Imagination in a Southern Family". Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN 0195109821External links
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/peopleevents/p_wpercy.html "American Experience": "Fatal Flood"] - Percy bio and his participation in events after the
Mississippi Flood of 1927
* [http://williamapercy.com/RisingPercy.htm A Take On Percy's Involvement in the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]
* [http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00361/ William Alexander Percy Collection (MUM00361)] owned by the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections.
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