William Alexander Percy: The Curious Life of a Mississippi Planter and Sexual Freethinker

Title Page, Copyright Page

WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY This page intentionally left blank WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY The Curious Life of a Mississippi Planter and Sexual Freethinker Benjamin E. Wise University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill This book was published with the assistance of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.© 2012 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Set in Minion Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wise, Benjamin E. William Alexander Percy : the curious life of a Mississippi planter and sexual freethinker / Benjamin E. Wise. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8078-3535-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Percy, William Alexander, 1885-1942. 2. Poets, American— 20th century—Biography. 3. Landowners—Mississippi—Greenville— Biography. 4. Plantation life—Mississippi—Greenville. I. Title. PS3531.E65Z98 2012 811'.52—dc23 [B] 2011036531 Much of chapter 9 appeared previously as “On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry: Nostalgia, Sex, and the Souths of William Alexander Percy,” Southern Cultures 14, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 54–79; and other portions of the book appeared in Craig T. Friend, ed., Southern Masculinity: Perspectives on Manhood in the South since Reconstruction (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009). 16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1 For Alston This page intentionally left blank ...