[percy-l] Shelby Foote and Walker Percy

Doug Brown wply1223 at gmail.com
Sun Oct 10 19:25:24 EDT 2021


Hi Rhonda and all y'all,

I've often thought (not uniquely, I'm sure) that Foote's writings and
Percy's writings form a sort of American Iliad and Odyssey, especially if
by odyssey we mean a spiritual journey in response to the long tail of the
war. Sounds a bit cliched when I write it out plainly like that, but the
idea has emotional resonance for me.

Doug
Walker Percy Loves You <https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096LS1B7M>

On Sat, Oct 9, 2021 at 2:24 PM RHONDA MCDONNELL <rhonda_mcdonnell at msn.com>
wrote:

> Wow Greg, that must have been something to hear them reminisce. Can you
> image Foote’s voice raised in that sort of parental frustration that Huger
> described!? The Walker Percy Weekend is a Percy event I haven’t attended.
> Maybe someday … after the current apocalypse. I can’t help but wonder what
> the two of them (Percy and Foote) would make of our current social and
> cultural woes? It’s both the future Percy imagined and the past Foote
> illuminated.
>
> There’s an interesting thought — if I ever get a minute it’d be
> interesting to read Foote’s Civil War and Love in the Ruins as being in
> conversation. How might each inform the other? Hmmmm—anyone looking for a
> dissertation topic?
>
> Happy Saturday all!
>
> Rhonda
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Oct 8, 2021, at 5:18 PM, Plemmons, Gregory <gregory.plemmons at vumc.org>
> wrote:
>
> 
>
> Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed reading the collection a years ago.
> Not only did I gain a richer chronological understanding of Percy’s
> evolution as a writer and what life events were occurring with each of his
> novels, the esteem, humor, and friendship between these two was enviable.
> Lifelong male friendships particularly seem uncommon—rarer,  still, it
> seems to be documented in such a wonderful collection of letters.
>
>
>
> p.s. a few years ago, at the Walker Percy Festival in St. Francisville,
> both Percy’s daughter Mary Pratt and Foote’s son Huger spoke on a panel
> about growing up with their fathers. I don’t remember much now, but do
> recall that Huger said that Shelby got annoyed with Huger’s constant
> practice on the drums in their house in Memphis, when he was growing up. At
> one point,  Shelby reached his breaking point and stormed into the room,
> enraged, declaring “Goddammit, stop that noise! I’m trying to finish the
> Battle of Vicksburg up here!”—or something to that effect.
>
>
>
> Greg Plemmons
>
> Nashville, TN
>
>
>
> *From:* Percy-L <percy-l-bounces+gregory.plemmons=
> vumc.org at lists.ibiblio.org> *On Behalf Of *RHONDA MCDONNELL
> *Sent:* Friday, October 8, 2021 2:49 PM
> *To:* Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion <
> percy-l at lists.ibiblio.org>
> *Subject:* [percy-l] Shelby Foote and Walker Percy
>
>
>
> Hello fellow Percy folks,
>
>
>
> There is a fascinating hour-long CSPAN interview of Shelby Foote on
> YouTube that was conducted not long after the publication of *The
> Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy*, edited by Jay Tolson,
> in 1997. Below is a brief description of the book.
>
>
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5ToRmgT-R4
> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DM5ToRmgT-R4&data=04%7C01%7Cgregory.plemmons%40vumc.org%7C976957c5ecdb4a9dd2cb08d98a94b7dc%7Cef57503014244ed8b83c12c533d879ab%7C0%7C0%7C637693194477747097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=K0Z2vERKOfD8wb%2FR6T4jNQ2Kc3xxioDKiZhoGXPs7nc%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
> How I love that lovely Southern accent Shelby Foote has! The documentary
> reminds me of the first experience of reading their letters. Reading their
> responses to each other through the years, the mix of topics they engaged
> in, the love and respect they had for each other, was such a privilege.
>
>
>
> I think of how Will Barrett wandered to Civil War battlegrounds while in
> his fugues, and later how he used a cave previously used by the Confederate
> army for his grand experiment in The Second Coming. Certainly all
> Southerners of their time were haunted by that war, but I wonder to what
> degree Percy’s references to the Civil War in his novels and essays reflect
> discussions they had together.
>
>
>
> Now that I live in Virginia, I’m surrounded by the vestiges of that war,
> though of course many statues have come down. I’ve traveled often to
> Gettysburg, and after my first trip there, I read Foote’s section on
> Gettysburg aloud to my family. Of all the Civil War history I’ve read,
> Foote is my go to, perhaps a bit out of affection but more out of respect
> for the stellar scholarship he did.
>
>
>
> I wonder if anyone else has any comments about their letters in the
> collection or about Foote’s Civil War masterpiece or even about the Ken
> Burns series on the Civil War, which features Foote.
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Rhonda
>
>
>
>
>
>>
> *The Correspondence of Shelby Foote and Walker Percy* (W.W. Norton, 1997)
>
> In the late 1940s, Walker Percy and Shelby Foote, friends since their
> teenage years in Greenville, Mississippi, began a correspondence that would
> last until Percy’s death in 1990. Their letters provide a rich record of an
> enduring literary and personal friendship. Walker Percy, winner of the
> National Book Award, wrote six novels and two volumes of philosophical
> writing. Shelby Foote’s reputation rests less on his five works of fiction
> than his massive three-volume narrative history of the Civil War that he
> started in the early 1950s and completed in 1974. In their letters Percy
> and Foote openly discuss their ambitions, artistic doubts, and personal
> problems with intelligence, good-natured ribbing, and a large dose of
> self-mockery.
> https://documentarystudies.duke.edu/books/correspondence-shelby-foote-and-walker-percy
> <https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocumentarystudies.duke.edu%2Fbooks%2Fcorrespondence-shelby-foote-and-walker-percy&data=04%7C01%7Cgregory.plemmons%40vumc.org%7C976957c5ecdb4a9dd2cb08d98a94b7dc%7Cef57503014244ed8b83c12c533d879ab%7C0%7C0%7C637693194477757093%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PoKpEsiHkZ%2BQw5Z3FFp%2Fsxs5krMMPYOWuM5rtBenYl4%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
>
>
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