Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Walker's & Shelby's "teahouse"

Found it, tucked away in a box in a drawer: the Brinkwood "tea-house" near the University of the South at Sewanee, TN, constructed by Walker Percy and Shelby Foote in the '30s, visited by me in 1996, & mentioned in yesterday's post. 


I'm still trying, without total success, to see how the world (or the cove, at least) looks through the eyes of a southern Roman Catholic-Existentialist novelist and a Civil War historian (& star of Ken Burns' "Civil War") who appreciated fine bourbon--  "boih-buhn," in Shelby's mouth. 


It was a cave in just such a cove as lies beneath this perch, Lost Cove cave, into which Percy sent his protagonist in The Second Coming to search for God.


No single point of view is privileged, all contribute to the whole.


But the view from this pavilion is absolutely spectacular. I have that picture somewhere too, I'm pretty sure. I'll keep looking.



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3 comments:

Will said...

Dr. Oliver,

Thanks for this post. I'm intrigued that such a thing exists. Sort of a permanent Percy monument built in the woods. I hope you don't mind, but a few weeks ago I picked this up and posted it on my site. Feel free to let me know if you object. You can find it at http://www.sutterscasebook.com/2010/05/teahouse/.

Thanks again,
Will

Phil said...

No problem at all, Will.

As I just commented at your site: I haven't been back to Brinkwood since '96 but I assume it's still intact, and I hope the property's still rentable. Will do some further research and let you know.

Nadar said...

Phil,

Very nice photo of you and the tea house.

I'm currently doing a study on all the homes Walker Percy lived at and locations he frequented throughout his life.

Is there any way you could find close to exact coordinants to this location from Google maps and email me the coordinates?

jglassow [at] gmail [dot] com

here is my study as it is so far:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=101920916798460109932.00048cea65419ffda3ef9&ll=35.118961,-85.908934&spn=0.004379,0.006791&t=h&z=17

Jonathan

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