William Alexander Percy
Encyclopedia
William Alexander Percy (May 14, 1885 – January 21, 1942), was a lawyer, planter, and poet from Greenville, Mississippi
. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee (Knopf 1941) became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy
was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature. In a largely Protestant state, the younger Percy championed the Roman Catholicism of his French mother.
, of the planter class in Mississippi, and grew up in Greenville on the big river. His father was elected as US senator in 1910. As an attorney and planter with 20,000 acres under cultivation for cotton, he was very influential in the state.
Percy attended the Episcopal University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee
, a postbellum tradition in his family. He spent a year in Paris
before going to Harvard for a law degree. After returning to Greenville, Percy joined his father's firm in the practice of law.
During World War I
, Percy joined the Commission for Relief in Belgium
in November 1916. He served in Belgium as a delegate until the withdrawal of American personnel upon the U.S. declaration of war in April 1917. He served in the US Army in World War I
, earning the rank of Captain and the Croix de Guerre
.
From 1925 to 1932, Percy edited the Yale Younger Poets
series, the first of its kind in the country. He also published four volumes of poetry with the Yale University Press
. A Southern man of letters, Percy befriended many fellow writers, Southern, Northern and European, including William Faulkner
. He socialized with Langston Hughes
and other people in and about the Harlem Renaissance
. Percy was a sort of godfather to the Fugitives
at Vanderbilt
, or Southern Agrarians
, as John Crowe Ransom
, Allen Tate
and Robert Penn Warren
were often called.
Percy's family was plagued with suicide
s, including his first cousin LeRoy Pratt Percy and possibly his wife Phinizy, who died in an auto accident. William adopted his cousin's children, Walker
, LeRoy (Roy) and Phinizy (Phin) Percy, after they were orphaned. As an adult, Roy married Sarah Hunt Farish, the daughter of Will Percy's law partner, Hazlewood Power Farish. He 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 of his pieces was published 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, Percy was put in charge of relief during the great flood of 1927, when an area larger than all New England
(minus Maine
) was inundated. During the flood, thousands of blacks fleeing farms and plantations under water sought refuge on the levee in Greenville. Percy believed that the refugees needed to be evacuated to Vicksburg, Mississippi
to receive better care and food, and arranged for ships to prepare to remove them. But, local planters, including Percy's father, a forcefull former USsenator, opposed this decision. They worried that if the black workers were removed from the area, they would never return. Percy capitulated and the ships left Greenville empty. After conditions on the levee deteriorated, Percy was strongly criticized in the national press. He later resigned his post and left for a trip to Japan
the following day.
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Writers
Other Percys
Greenville, Mississippi
Greenville is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 48,633 at the 2000 census, but according to the 2009 census bureau estimates, it has since declined to 42,764, making it the eighth-largest city in the state. It is the county seat of Washington...
. His autobiography Lanterns on the Levee (Knopf 1941) became a bestseller. His father LeRoy Percy
LeRoy Percy
LeRoy Percy was a wealthy planter from Greenville, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta. He attended the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He served as United States Senator from Mississippi from 1910 to 1913...
was the last United States Senator from Mississippi elected by the legislature. In a largely Protestant state, the younger Percy championed the Roman Catholicism of his French mother.
Early life and education
He was born to Camille, a French Catholic, and LeRoy PercyLeRoy Percy
LeRoy Percy was a wealthy planter from Greenville, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta. He attended the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He served as United States Senator from Mississippi from 1910 to 1913...
, of the planter class in Mississippi, and grew up in Greenville on the big river. His father was elected as US senator in 1910. As an attorney and planter with 20,000 acres under cultivation for cotton, he was very influential in the state.
Percy attended the Episcopal University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee
Sewanee, Tennessee
Sewanee is an unincorporated locality in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States, treated by the U.S. Census as a census-designated place . The population was 2,361 at the 2000 census...
, a postbellum tradition in his family. He spent a year in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
before going to Harvard for a law degree. After returning to Greenville, Percy joined his father's firm in the practice of law.
During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Percy joined the Commission for Relief in Belgium
Committee for Relief in Belgium
The Commission for Relief in Belgium or C.R.B. − known also as just Belgian Relief − was an international organization that arranged for the supply of food to German-occupied Belgium and northern France during the First World War.Its leading figure was chairman Herbert Hoover .- Origins :When the...
in November 1916. He served in Belgium as a delegate until the withdrawal of American personnel upon the U.S. declaration of war in April 1917. He served in the US Army in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, earning the rank of Captain and the Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
.
From 1925 to 1932, Percy edited the Yale Younger Poets
Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition
The Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the first collection of a promising American poet...
series, the first of its kind in the country. He also published four volumes of poetry with the Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
. A Southern man of letters, Percy befriended many fellow writers, Southern, Northern and European, including William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
. He socialized with Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
and other people in and about the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
. Percy was a sort of godfather to the Fugitives
Fugitives
The Fugitives were a group of poets and literary scholars who came together at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, around 1920. They published a small literary magazine called The Fugitive from 1922-1925 which showcased their works...
at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
, or Southern Agrarians
Southern Agrarians
The Southern Agrarians were a group of twelve American writers, poets, essayists, and novelists, all with roots in the Southern United States, who joined together to write a pro-Southern agrarian manifesto, a...
, as John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom
John Crowe Ransom was an American poet, essayist, magazine editor, and professor.-Life:...
, Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
and Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
were often called.
Percy's family was plagued with suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
s, including his first cousin LeRoy Pratt Percy and possibly his wife Phinizy, who died in an auto accident. William adopted his cousin's children, Walker
Walker Percy
Walker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
, LeRoy (Roy) and Phinizy (Phin) Percy, after they were orphaned. As an adult, Roy married Sarah Hunt Farish, the daughter of Will Percy's law partner, Hazlewood Power Farish. He 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 of his pieces was published under the name A.W. Percy in Men and Boys, an anonymous anthology of Uranian
Uranian
frame|right|From [[John Addington Symonds]]' 1891 book A Problem in Modern Ethics.Uranian is a 19th century term that referred to a person of a third sex — originally, someone with "a female psyche in a male body" who is sexually attracted to men, and later extended to cover homosexual gender...
poetry (New York, 1934).
A friend of Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
from the Belgium Relief Effort during the early years of World War I, Percy was put in charge of relief during the great flood of 1927, when an area larger than all New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
(minus Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
) was inundated. During the flood, thousands of blacks fleeing farms and plantations under water sought refuge on the levee in Greenville. Percy believed that the refugees needed to be evacuated to Vicksburg, Mississippi
Vicksburg
Vicksburg is the name of some places in the United States of America:* Vicksburg, Florida* Vicksburg, Indiana* Vicksburg, Michigan* Vicksburg, Mississippi** The Vicksburg Campaign, an American Civil War campaign...
to receive better care and food, and arranged for ships to prepare to remove them. But, local planters, including Percy's father, a forcefull former USsenator, opposed this decision. They worried that if the black workers were removed from the area, they would never return. Percy capitulated and the ships left Greenville empty. After conditions on the levee deteriorated, Percy was strongly criticized in the national press. He later resigned his post and left for a trip to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
the following day.
Legacy and honors
- The William Alexander Percy Library at 341 Main Street, Greenville, Mississippi is named for him.
Percy Family
{| width="100%"| valign=top |
Writers
- Walker PercyWalker PercyWalker Percy was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. Percy is best known for his philosophical novels set in and around New Orleans, Louisiana, the first of which, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962...
Other Percys
- Charles "Don Carlos" Percy
- LeRoy PercyLeRoy PercyLeRoy Percy was a wealthy planter from Greenville, Mississippi in the heart of the Delta. He attended the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He served as United States Senator from Mississippi from 1910 to 1913...
- Thomas George PercyThomas George PercyThomas George Percy, Sr. was an 18th-century wealthy American cotton planter and settler of Alabama.-Biography:Son of Charles "Don Carlos" Percy, , an adventurer from Ireland with pretensions to blood lines of the Dukes of Northumberland, Thomas George Percy was born in Alabama in the late 1780s...
External links
- American Experience: "Fatal Flood" - Percy bio and his participation in events after the Mississippi Flood of 1927
- A Take On Percy's Involvement in the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
- William Alexander Percy Collection (MUM00361) owned by the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections.