Introduction

Biography

William was the son of Am­er­ican sen­at­or Le­Roy Per­cy and Ca­mille Bourges.

He at­tend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of the South, Se­wa­nee, Ten­nes­see, and Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty, Cam­bridge, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

He prac­ticed law with his fa­ther for a while, and par­ti­ci­pat­ed in the Com­mis­sion for Re­lief in Bel­gium dur­ing World War I. He al­so served in the Am­er­ican ar­my, was pro­mot­ed to cap­tain in the 37th Di­vi­sion in 1918, and re­ceived the French Croix de Guerre.

He ret­urned to Green­ville, Mis­sis­sip­pi, af­ter the war and wrote po­et­ry. He is al­so re­mem­bered for his leade­rship dur­ing the Mis­sis­sip­pi floods of 1927, and for his op­po­si­tion to the Ku Klux Klan.

Works

• Sappho in Lev­kas and Oth­er Po­ems (New Haven, Con­nec­ti­cut: Yale Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1915)
• Enzio’s King­dom and Oth­er Po­ems, 1924
• Lanterns on the Le­vee: Re­Col­lect­ions of a Plant­er’s Son, 1941