Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) [Paperback]

William Alexander Percy (Author), Walker Percy (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006 | Series: Library of Southern Civilization

Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885–1942) was brought face to face with the convulsions of a changing world. Lanterns on the Levee is his memorial to the South of his youth and young manhood. In describing life in the Mississippi Delta, Percy bridges the interval between the semifeudal South of the 1800s and the anxious South of the early 1940s. The rare qualities of this classic memoir lie not in what Will Percy did in his life—although his life was exciting and varied—but rather in the intimate, honest, and soul-probing record of how he brought himself to contemplate unflinchingly a new and unstable era. The 1973 introduction by Walker Percy—Will's nephew and adopted son—recalls the strong character and easy grace of "the most extraordinary man I have ever known." AUTHOR BIO: William Alexander Percy was the author of four books of poetry, and he practiced law in Greenville until his death, one year after the publication of his autobiography. Awarded the Croix de Guerre with gold star for his service in World War I, he also was one of the leaders in the succesful 1922 fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville and headed the local Red Cross unit during the disastrous Mississippi River flooding of 1927.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807100722
• ISBN-13: 978-0807100721
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,013 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Lost Voice Of A Lost Cause, December 13, 2002

By 

Nolan F. Bond "Crusty Old Gamer" (Garland, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) (Paperback)

This is one of those books that is almost impossible to objectively review. The writing is elegant and evocative of an era in the South that died almost in tandem with Mr. Percy and yet I find some parts of it so arrogant and condescending that I feel myself grinding my teeth. You see, I am descended from those Mississippi hill people Percy so despised and, even after all this time, I can almost see the languid gaze and soft, drawling voice. My people came to the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta after the Flood of '27 and we build and earned what we got without the benefit of the massive slave labor that built Mr. Percy's fortune.

But this is a book review and I'll put aside old feelings to say that this is a literary gem that brings to life a way of life on which so many stereotypes of the South are built. And Will Percy is amazingly honest in his descriptions of his society. However, a society this simple and yet this complex takes more than just one book to grasp.

Thus, I also recommend "Rising Tide" by John Barry and "The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity" by James Cobb to balance your view of this time and place in history.

Bottom line: This is a wonderful, beautifully written story that is refreshingly candid with none of the defensiveness and politically correct breast beating of many of the works of southern writers of recent years.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memoir of the highest order, November 18, 1997

By 

"flashindc" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) (Paperback)

Elegantly written with a cadence all its own, William Alexander Percy's memoir provides an unreconstructed view of another time. Percy's sense of the dying southern aristocracy and the corresponding decline of his place in the South represents a vivid picture of life on the Delta for the large planter class. Percy's South required his life to be governed by a sense of noblesse oblige, but through his eyes one can watch this notion slowly wither away. For the unprepared, beware, Percy does not lack for ego, but this might be expected from one who felt the position he held required him to heed to a higher code. If you enjoy true southern literature then you will find this memoir highly satisfying.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality, October 8, 2005

By 

C. V. Manning - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) (Paperback)

Percy's approach to life can be summed up by a quote from the book: "It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners." Percy's book is a rare member of that most elusive category of books - the autobiography of true literary quality. Percy's touch is honest without being journalistic; poetic without appearing over-embroidered; and in his own eccentric person he provides the subject matter which is required to make such a work interesting. He steps out of the late 19th/early 20th century Mississippi delta as a character that could not have existed anywhere else. Affected, genteel, kind, elitist, romantic and with a view of race more in keeping with British Imperial "white man's burden" line of thought than anything American in origin - Percy the character remains fascinating even as the modern reader disagrees with his positions. A clearly and well told tale of an extinct breed (the gentrified southern aristocrat), a lost land (the Mississippi delta of the turn of the 20th century), and a buried epoch (the pre desegregation era). An excellent book - well worth reading not only to better understand a particular aspect of American history but for the pleasure of reading a well written book, regardless of the subject matter.