This database lists the contents of Walker Percy's working library of 2,500 printed volumes. Of those, Percy annotated approximately one-third.

Walker Percy, a member of UNC's class of 1937, is considered one of the finest novelists of the second half of the 20th century. His novels include The Moviegoer, The Last Gentleman, Love in the Ruins, The Second Coming, and The Thanatos Syndrome.

Percy initially wrote philosophical non-fiction, but soon determined that he could better communicate his ideas to a broader audience through fiction. His first novel, The Moviegoer, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1962. The award signaled a successful career that ended with Percy's death in 1990.

Nine years before he died, Percy began depositing his papers in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, founding what would become the most comprehensive Percy research collection in North America. The University of North Carolina's Rare Book Collection acquired his substantial working library in 1999.