Walker Percy: The Moviegoer & Other Novels 1961-1971 (Loa #380): The Moviegoer / The Last Gentleman / Love in the Ruins - Walker Percy

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1916, Walker Percy was trained as a physician at Columbia University. After a year's internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York, he contracted tuberculosis and abandoned medicine for a literary career. His first novel, The Moviegoer , was awarded the 1962 National Book Award for Fiction. His other books include the novels The Last Gentleman , Love in the Ruins , and The Thanatos Syndrome as well as the collection of essays The Message in the Bottle . Percy died in Covington, Louisiana, in 1990. Paul Elie is a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. His first book,  The Life You Save May Be Your Own , received the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle award finalist in 2003. He is also the author of Reinventing Bach , a finalist for National Book Critics Circle award in 2012. He lives in New York City.