Maple Street Book Shop wants to do everything in
its power to keep Walker Percy's ideas alive. We feel, now more than ever,
that the world needs Walker Percy.
Walker Percy: In Gratitude
Walker Percy was especially kind to the
Maple Street Book Shop. Years ago, when he was teaching a course at
Loyola, he started dropping by to sign books for us. He also let us
give several autograph parties for him, even though, as we discovered
later, they were a source of intense discomfort to him, as he hated
forgetting people's names and perhaps hurting their feelings.
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Rhoda
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When he couldn't handle signing parties anymore,
he was agreeable to our sending out flyers announcing the publication
of a new book. We would drive over to Covington with a car full of boxes
of his new book for him to sign and inscribe.
Customer response invariably yielded great piles
of sometimes weird and intricate requests for special inscriptions. He
would always try to accommodate and would only sometimes pass judgement
in the form of a sad smile when confronted with instructions on a form
to inscribe something like, "To a budding fellow writer who treads
the same path and makes the same search . . . " or "To a bourbon-lover
extraordinaire--You love not wisely but too well . . . don't blow your
cool." Once in a while, he'd look up with a slight grimace and say,
"Do I know this guy?"
He also helped Maple Street Book Shop's publishing
arm, Faust Publishing Company, to come into existence by offering a speech
of his, "Diagnosing the Modern Malaise," to be its first publication,
and later, two other pieces of his work.
After Walker Percy's death, many of our customers
expressed their sympathy for our loss. We really appreciated that, and
we want to thank them. Many also voiced their own great sorrow. Some of
the people who were most saddened did not even know him personally, but
they had read his books and felt, and we understand why, that he knew
them.
As a writer, his greatest gift was getting right
to the heart of the matter, putting his finger right on the crucial spot.
The dry humor with which he did this made his books startlingly funny,
while at the same time, breathtakingly important. With regard to his faith
in God and Catholicism, it was his intelligent soft-handedness that won
him respect from non-believers as well as believers.
We have lost a great friend, and we remember
him gratefully.
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Walker Percy Book Lists ::
We have developed these lists to ensure that we keep in stock all
of Walker Percy's books and all books about him and his work that
are still in print.
Books by Walker Percy:
The Moviegoer (1961, available in hardcover
by Knopf, $26.95, and paperback by Vintage, $12.95).
First published in 1961, Walker Percy's first published novel has
become a classic. Binx Bolling is unsettled, occupying himself by
going to the movies. But on Mardi Gras, he finds himself on a quest.
Winner of the National Book Award.
The Last Gentleman (1966, available in
paperback by Picador, $15.00).
Will Barrett is the last gentleman, a wanderer with no plans for
the future--until he suddenly falls in love.
Love in the Ruins (1971, available in paperback
by Picador, $15.00).
A doctor embarks on a mission to cure mankind's spiritual malaise
and begins to learn the value of life and its susceptibility to
ruin.
The Message in the Bottle: How Queer
Man Is, How Queer Language Is, And What One Has to Do with the Other
(1975, available in paperback by Picador, $14.00).
Why are modern people unhappy and ill at ease in the world? Walker
Percy confronts this and other basic human questions, while offering
insights into the way language possesses us.
Lancelot (1977, a limited number of hardcovers
available by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.95, and available
in paperback by Picador, $ 14.00).
A man finds himself confined in a mental asylum with memories not
worth remembering. An old friend visits, and Lancelot recounts his
descent into violence, which started the day he discovered that
his youngest daughter was not his child.
The Second Coming (1980, available in paperback
by Picador, $ 15.00).
The main character from The Last Gentleman returns in this
novel, suffering from depression. When he meets Allison, who's escaping
from a mental hospital, he begins a search for proof of God and
finds much more.
Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book (1983,
available in paperback by Picador, $14.00). Walker Percy's take
on the self-help movement. It invites us to think about what the
self really is and how we live in the world.
The Thanatos Syndrome (1987, a limited number
of hardcovers available by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.95,
and available in paperback by Picador, $15.00).
Walker Percy's last novel revisits Dr. Tom More of Love in the
Ruins. He returns home to a small Louisiana parish where he
once practiced psychiatry. But he quickly notices something strange:
the townsfolk have lost their inhibitions. Behind this mystery is
a dangerous plot to drug the water supply.
"He is a dazzlingly gifted novelist." --USA Today
Signposts in a Strange Land (1991, limited
number of copies available in hardback by Farrar, Straus & Giroux,
$27.95, and in paperback by Picador, $15.00). Edited and with an
introduction by Patrick Samway.
Published after his death, this book contains Walker Percy's previously
uncollected non-fiction, including essays, talks, and memoirs, as
well as a self-interview.
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Walker Percy and Nancy Lemann |
We also have copies of books signed by Walker Percy:
Diagnosing the Modern Malaise. Faust Publishing Co.
1985. First edition. Presentation copy (not numbered) of a limited
edition of 250 numbered copies. Illustrated with a photograph of
Walker Percy. Signed by Walker Percy. Fine without dust jacket,
as issued. $350.00.
Diagnosing the Modern Malaise. Faust Publishing Co.
1985. First edition. One of a limited edition of 250 numbered copies.
This copy is not numbered. Illustrated with a photograph of Walker
Percy. Signed by Walker Percy. Fine without dust jacket, as issued.
$400.00.
Diagnosing the Modern Malaise. Faust Publishing Co.
1985. First edition. One of a deluxe limited edition of 50 numbered
copies. This copy is not numbered. Illustrated with a photograph
of Walker Percy. Signed by Walker Percy. Fine without dust jacket,
as issued. $600.00.
Novel Writing in an Apocalyptic Time.
Afterword by Eudora Welty. Faust Publishing Co., New Orleans (1986).
30 pages
Illustrated with a Photograph of Walker Percy and a Photograph of
Eudora Welty. One of a limited edition of 300 copies. As New. Signed
by Walker Percy and Eudora Welty. $500.00.
Deluxe Limited Edition of 100 Numbered Copies. As New. Signed by
Walker Percy
and Eudora Welty. $700.00.
Novel Writing in an Apocalyptic Time. Afterword by
Eudora Welty. First edition. Faust Publishing Co. 1986. One of a
deluxe limited edition of 100 numbered copies. Illustrated with
a photograph of Walker Percy and a photograph of Eudora Welty. Signed
by Walker Percy and Eudora Welty. Slight smudge on the cover, else
fine without a dust jacket, as issued. $600.00.
The State of the Novel: Dying Art
or New Science. Faust Publishing Co., New Orleans,
1988. 25 pages, Illustrated with a Photograph of Walker Percy.
Signed, Limited Edition of 250 Numbered Copies. As New. $200.00.
Deluxe Edition of 75 Numbered Copies, signed by Walker Percy. As
New. $350.00.
The State of the Novel: Dying Art or New Science.
Faust Publishing Co. 1988. First edition. Illustrated with a photograph
of Walker Percy.
Presentation copy (not numbered) of a limited edition of 250 numbered
copies. Signed by Walker Percy. Fine without a dust jacket, as issued.
$250.00.
The Thanatos Syndrome. Farrar, Straus
& Giroux (1987). 1st Printing. Signed by Walker Percy. As New.
$ 70.00.
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Walker
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Books about Walker Percy:
(alphabetized by author)
Walker Percy: Southern Wayfarer
by William Rodney Allen
Univ. Pr. of Mississippi (1986) $30.00 (H)
The Percys of Mississippi
by Lewis Baker
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1983) $24.95 (H)
Walker Percy
by Harold Bloom
Chelsea House Pub. (1986) $19.95 (H)
The Art of Walker Percy
by Panthea R. Broughton
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1976) $37.50 (H)
Walker Percy: Books of Revelations
by Gary M. Ciuba
Univ. of Georgia Pr. (1991) $45.00 (H)
Critical Essays on Walker Percy
by J.D. and Sue Crowley
G.K. Hall & Co., Boston (1989) $59.95 (H)
At the Crossroads: Ethical & Religious Themes in
the Writings of Walker Percy
by John Desmond
Whitson Publishing Co. (1997) $22.50 (H)
Walker Percy's Search for Community
by John Desmond
University of Georgia Press (2004) $39.95. (H)
Autobiography in Walker Percy
by Edward Dupuy
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1996) $27.50 (H)
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
by Paul Elie
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2003) $15.00 (P)
The Last Physician: Walker Percy
and the Moral Life of Medicine
By Carl Elliott and John Lantos
Duke University Press (1999) $15.95 (P)
Signs of Christianity in Work of Walker Percy
by Anne Mace Futrell
International Scholars Pub. (1994) $44.95 (P)
Walker Percy: Novelist and Philosopher
by Gretlund and Westarp
Univ. Pr. of Mississippi (1991) $40.00 (H)
Literature & Belief/Walker Percy
vol.16.2 $5.50 (P)
The Fiction of Walker Percy
by John E. Hardy
Univ. of Illinois Press (1987) $37.95 (H)
Understanding Walker Percy
by Linda W. Hobson
Univ. Of So. Carolina Pr. (1988)
$34.95 (H) /$17.95 (P)
Walker Percy: A Complete Descriptive Bibliography
by Linda W. Hobson
(introduction by Walker Percy)
Faust Publishing (1988)
$35.00 (H)
Gift of the Other
by Mary Deems Howland
Duquesne Univ. Pr. (1990) $39.95 (H)
Walker Percy's Voices
by Michael Kobre
Univ. Pr. of Georgia (2000) $37.95 (H)
Conversations with Walker Percy
by Victor Kramer and Lewis A. Lawson
Univ. Pr. of Mississippi (1985) $14.95 (P)
More Conversations with Walker Percy
by Victor Kramer and Lewis A. Lawson
Univ. Pr. of Mississippi (1993) $15.95 (P)
Walker Percy: Prophet, Existentialist, Catholic
by Robert E. Lauder
Peter Lang Press (1996) $29.95 (P)
Following Percy
by Lewis A. Lawson
Whitson Publishing Co. (1988) $21.95 (H)
Still Following Percy
by Lewis A. Lawson
Univ. Pr. of Mississippi (1995) $37.50 (H)
Walker Percy's Feminine Characters
by Lewis A. Lawson and E. Olesky
Whitson Publishing Co. (1995) $21.95 (H)
The Sovereign Wayfarer
by Martin Luschei
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1972) $ 55.00 (H) 1st edition, signed
(out of print)
Eudora Welty and Walker Percy
by Marion Montgomery
McFarland & Co. (2003) $38.50 (H)
Plight in Common: Hawthorne and Percy
by Elzbieta Olesky
Peter Lang (1993) $49.95 (P)
Walker Percy's Sacramental Landscrapes
by Allen Pridgen
Susquehanna Univ. Pr. (2000) $43.50 (H)
Walker Percy and the Old Modern Age
by Patricia L. Poteat
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1985) $30.00 (H)
Myth of the Fall and Walker Percy's
Last Gentleman
by Bernadette Prochaska
Peter Lang (1992)$42.50 (P)
Walker Percy: The Last Catholic Novelist
by Kieran Quinlan
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1996) $11.95 (P)
Percyscapes
by Robert Rudnicki
Louisiana State Univ. Pr. (1999) $30.00 (H)
A Thief of Peirce: The Letters of
Kenneth Laine and Walker Percy
by Patrick Samway, S.J.
Univ. Pr. of Mississippi (1995) $45.00 (H)
Walker Percy: A Life
by Patrick Samway, S.J.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux (1997) $35.00 (H)
Writer as Shaman
by Ted Spivey
Mercer University Press (1986) $29.95 (H)
Walker Percy & the Postmodern World
by Mary Sweeny
Loyola University Press (1987) $15.95 (H)
Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy
by Jay Tolson (editor)
Norton (1996) $14.00 (P)
Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy
by Jay Tolson
Univ. of N. C. Chapel Hill (1994) $16.95 (P)
Comedy of Redemption
by Ralph C. Wood
Univ. of Notre Dame Pr. $20.00 (P)
The House of Percy
by Bertram Wyatt-Brown
Oxford University Pr. (1994) $17.95 (P)
The Literary Percys
by Bertram Wyatt-Brown
University of Georgia Pr. (1994) $19.95 (H)
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