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  • From: "Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
  • To: Percy-L <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [percy-l] Percy and Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain"
  • Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2026 18:20:59 -0500

Michael, thanks for your shared comments and question to the listserv about Percy and Mann.

I took a quick look at the Samway biography, and yes, during his long convalescence from tuberculosis at Trudeau Sanatorium in the 1940s, Percy's reading list from the library includes Mann's The Magic Mountain.

On the topic, Lewis Simpson has this to say in his Southern Review memorial essay to Percy located on the Project website:

"Walker attributed his choice of vocation to the privilege he had — it was nothing less than a privilege in his estimation — of "taking the cure" at "an old-fashioned sanatorium," which he compared to the sanatorium in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. The comparison was somewhat hyperbolic. Yet, although it hardly offered an exotic community of patients and doctors — the exotic emblems of a dying European culture — that Hans Castorp encountered on his Swiss mountain in the years immediately preceding the first world war, Trudeau Sanatorium did afford Percy the opportunity, in the context of life in a community of displaced fellow sufferers, to pursue a personal quest into the mystery of existence."

If you've read Magic Mountain, which I haven't yet, do you see any parallels between Mann's themes and any of Percy's you'd like to share? Of course, others in the community are welcome to reply, too. I will say, with a bit of (lost in the) cosmic irony, one is almost tempted to ask: How might Percy, biographically, be a Hans Castorpian figure himself?

Cheers,
Henry Mills


--
From Amazon
In "The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann, readers are transported to a Swiss sanatorium, where time seems to stand still, and the boundaries between reality and the surreal blur. The protagonist, Hans Castorp, arrives for a short visit but becomes entangled in the complex world of illness, philosophy, and conflicting ideologies. As the novel unfolds, Mann weaves a mesmerizing narrative that explores the human condition, intellectual pursuits, and the impact of the looming World War I. "The Magic Mountain" is a captivating journey into the recesses of the mind, a place where the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary, and the boundaries between sanity and madness become increasingly elusive.
https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Mountain-Thomas-Mann/dp/B0DYSQ22RN/

__
Henry P. Mills III
Director, The Walker Percy Project


On Fri, Jan 2, 2026 at 12:59 PM Michael Serafin <michael_serafin AT hotmail.com> wrote:
Mr.Mills, thank you so much for posting this wonderful article. I would companion it with an essay called "The Walker Percy Option" published a few years ago.  The First Things article mentions in passing Mann's "The Magic Mountain". Did Percy read this, I wonder?

Happy New Year, Percyites!

Michael Serafin
Chicopee, MA.

From: percy-l-request AT lists.ibiblio.org <percy-l-request AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, January 2, 2026 5:00 PM
To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org <percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: percy-l Digest Fri, 02 Jan 2026 (1/1)
 
percy-l digest Fri, 02 Jan 2026

Table of contents:

* 1 - [percy-l] Happy New Year to Percy-L -- "Walker Percy’s Pilgrimage
  " (First Things Magazine) - "Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message-ID:
 <CAPHQa6R8tHy-079v8ZDagg+QhF65VTrbmfp8DvoLtQmGmzGo9Q AT mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2026 09:36:42 -0500
From: "Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
Subject: [percy-l] Happy New Year to Percy-L -- "Walker Percy’s Pilgrimage
 " (First Things Magazine)

A Happy New Year's greeting to all Percy-L members:

Algis Valiunas provides us a well-written, insightful essay appropriate to the
start of a new year on Percy and his literary vision.

Wishing all a successful journey to your own personal authenticity ahead!
Best, Henry Mills

-------
"Walker Percy’s Pilgrimage"
*First Things Magazine*
Algis Valiuna, Nov. 25, 2025

"People can get used to most anything. Even the abyss may be rendered
tolerable—or, for that matter, luxurious—furnished with creature comforts
so that the unbearable truth of one’s condition is overlooked: a pair of
lavishly upholstered armchairs, some choice pictures on the wall, bookcases
laden with the best that has been thought and said, a sound system worthy
of your favorite Beethoven and Brahms recordings, a well-stocked liquor
cabinet, soothing overhead track lighting, and strategically placed table
lamps to make you almost forget the perpetual darkness outside your walls.
The hell with the world outside, anyway: You’re home, the best place there
is, you’re prosperous and well liked, you’re a fine example to your
children, your wife and your mistress are better-­looking than you deserve,
and you can’t imagine a better life than the one you’ve got....“The
specific character of despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being
despair”...

https://firstthings.com/walker-percys-pilgrimage/



__
Henry P. Mills III
Director, The Walker Percy Project
walkerpercyproject.org
wppdirector AT gmail.com


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End of percy-l Digest Fri, 02 Jan 2026

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