Hedgehog Review's Jay Tolson on Walker Percy, Southern Catholic Novelist

On this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Ark Prof. Albert Cheng and Great Hearts Academies’ Dr. Helen Baxendale speak with Jay Tolson, editor of The Hedgehog Review and author of Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy. Tolson delves into the literary legacy of Walker Percy, the celebrated 20th-century Southern Catholic novelist. He explores how Percy’s many personal hardships and family tragedies shaped his voice as a writer, and Percy being mentored by his uncle William Alexander Percy of Greenville, Mississippi. Mr. Tolson also describes the lifelong friendship Walker Percy formed with the American novelist and Civil War historian Shelby Foote. He also discusses how Percy being stricken with tuberculosis was pivotal to his Catholic conversion and literary mission, as well as Percy’s first novel The Moviegoer, which examined the human search for meaning within 20th-century America’s often soulless media culture, winning the 1962 National Book Award. Mr. Tolson concludes the episode by reading an excerpt from his award-winning biography, Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy.

Stories of the Week: Albert shares an article from Real Clear Education on how cuts to the liberal arts will backfire. Helen discusses a New York Times article on how cursive is making a comeback in New Jersey schools.

Guest:

Jay Tolson is Editor of The Hedgehog Review, the award-winning journal of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. A journalist, editor, author, and critic, Tolson covered religion, culture and ideas for U.S. News & World Report after working for more than decade as the literary editor and editor of the Wilson Quarterly. More recently, he served as the news director of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty in Prague, Czech Republic, directed the French to Africa service of the Voice of America, and launched the Global News Network for the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. His interest in religion and cultural and intellectual history runs throughout his journalism and criticism and informed his prize-winning literary biography Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of Walker Percy and co-edited The Correspondence of Shelby Foote & Walker Percy. Tolson’s work has appeared in the New Republic, Nation, National Review, Wall Street Journal, American Scholar, Times Literary Supplement (London), and other publications.