Tito Perdue

{{short description|American writer (born 1938)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2016}}{{Infobox writer  | image = | imagesize = | name = Tito Perdue | caption = | pseudonym = Tito Perdue | birth_name = Albert Monroe Perdue | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1938|8|16|df=y}} | birth_place =Sewell, Chile<ref name="ssa">U.S. Consular Report of Birth, [https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Perdue,%20Tito "Tito Perdue," astro.com] (accessed 22 May 2025).</ref> | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Novelist | nationality = American | alma_mater = Antioch College, University of Texas | period = | genre = Novel, satire | subject = Degeneration, beauty | notableworks = ''Lee'' (1991) | movement = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | spouse = {{marriage|Judy Clark|1957}} | children = 1 | website = {{URL|titoperdue.com}} }}

'''Tito Perdue''' (born 16 August 1938) is an American novelist. His works include his 1991 debut ''Lee''.

==Personal life== ===Early life and education=== Perdue was born '''Albert Perdue''' to American parents in Chile, where his father worked as an electrical engineer for the Braden Copper Company.<ref name="ssa" />{{efn|In an interview on [https://counter-currents.com/2017/11/counter-currents-radio-weekly-interview-with-tito-perdue/ ''Counter-Currents Radio'', ep. 205 (20 November 2017)], 00:56-01:22, Perdue explains: "I was named, after my father, 'Albert.' But in Chile, the word ''tito'' means 'little.' It also can mean 'junior.' So I was called 'Albertito,' you know, 'Albert, Jr.,' 'little Albert.' And after a while they dropped the 'Albert' and people began calling me 'Tito.' And it sounds so much more literary, you know, than merely 'Albert': so I decided to use that for my pen-name."}} The family returned to the United States in 1941, upon the country's entering the War. Perdue was brought up in Anniston, Alabama.<ref name="knipfel">{{Cite web|last=Knipfel|first=Jim|authorlink=Jim Knipfel|date=2001-06-12|url=http://www.nypress.com/tito-perdue-americas-lost-literary-genius/|title=Tito Perdue: America's Lost Literary Genius|work=New York Press|accessdate=2018-06-23}}</ref><ref name="aa">Library of Congress Linked Data Service, "Perdue, Tito." https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n91013525.html (accessed 12 May 2025)</ref> He graduated from Indian Springs School in 1956.<ref name="aa" /> He attended Antioch College for a year before he was expelled for cohabiting with a fellow student, Judy Clark.<ref name="aa" /> They married in 1957.<ref name="aa" /><ref name="wwaw">''[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoofamerica0000marq/page/1256/mode/1up?q=%22tito+perdue%22&view=theater Who's Who of American Women]'' (New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 2006), p. 1256.</ref>

Perdue received a BA in English literature from the University of Texas, and an MA in modern European history and an MLS from Indiana University.<ref>Biography, ''The New Austerities'' (Atlanta, GA: Peachtree, 1994).</ref>

===Career=== He then worked as an assistant professor and librarian at universities including Iowa State University and SUNY Binghamton.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25624350 "Currents,"] ''American Libraries'', vol. 12, no. 3 (March 1981), p. 168.</ref><ref>''[https://archive.org/details/1980-1981-isu-directory/page/12/mode/2up Iowa State University Directory 1980–81]'', p. 13.</ref><ref name="ccd">[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0364640878900054 Albert Perdue, "Conflicts in Collection Development," ''Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory'', vol. 2, no. 2, (1978), pp. 123–6.]</ref> During this time, he contributed under his birth name to scholarly journals of history and library science.<ref>[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/bai/perdue.htm Albert Perdue, "Hertzberg's Napoleonana," ''Books at Iowa'', no. 10 (April 1969), pp. 3–10.]</ref><ref name="ccd" /><ref>Albert Perdue, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41930347 review] of Eliyahu Ashtor, ''The Medieval Near East: Social and Economic History'', in ''Journal of Asian History'', vol. 13, no. 2 (1979), pp. 191–2.</ref><ref>Albert Perdue, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41930377 review] of Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid-Marsot, ''Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam'', in ''Journal of Asian History'', vol. 14, no. 2 (1980), pp. 149–50.</ref><ref>Albert Perdue, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1860663 review] of Eliyahu Ashtor, ''A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages'', in ''The American Historical Review'', vol. 85, no. 2 (April 1980), p. 439.</ref>

In 1983, he retired to his mother's family's Alabama property to write full time.<ref>Biography, ''The Sweet-Scented Manuscript'' (Fort Worth, TX: Baskerville, 2004).</ref><ref name ="noble">Don Noble, [https://www.apr.org/arts-life/2008-12-22/fields-of-asphodel-a-novel-by-tito-perdue "Fields of Asphodel (A Novel), by Tito Perdue,"] apr.org (22 December 2008). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref> He wrote ''The Sweet-Scented Manuscript'' first; though this would be his fourth novel published.<ref name="kurtagic">Alex Kurtagić, [https://web.archive.org/web/20111108033005/https://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/a-reactionary-snob/ "A Reactionary Snob,"] ''Alternative Right'' (3 November 2011). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref>

===Family=== Judy Perdue worked as a librarian and professor of biology at Floyd College and elsewhere.<ref name="wwaw" /><ref name="wwss">''[https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinsouthso0000unse_l0m5/page/627/mode/1up?q=%22tito+perdue%22&view=theater Who's Who in the South and Southwest]'' (New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who, 1993), p. 627.</ref> She is fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (London) and member of other learned associations.<ref name="wwaw" /><ref name="wwss" /> Her father, Christopher Clark, wrote novels of working class life, including ''The Unleashed Will'' (1947) and ''Good Is for Angels'' (1950).<ref>''[https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig18libr/page/n147/mode/2up?view=theater Catalog of Copyright Entries: Renewals]'' (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1980), p. 133.</ref><ref>Robert Reginald, ''[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Cumulative_Paperback_Index_1939_1959/rpjkMM7tdDYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Good+is+for+angels%22&pg=PA274&printsec=frontcover Cumulative Paperback Index, 1939-1959: A Comprehensive Bibliographic Guide]'' (San Bernardino, Calif.: Borgo Press), pp. 274, 351.</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1947/05/04/archives/a-crime-of-passion-the-unleashed-will-by-christopher-clark-280-pp.html ''The New York Times'', May 4, 1947, Section BR, Page 14.]</ref><ref>James A. Kaser, ''[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Chicago_of_Fiction/_oWSHXCqXMQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Good+is+for+angels%22&pg=PA72&printsec=frontcover The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide]'' (Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2011), p. 72, ''f.''</ref>

The Perdues have one daughter.<ref name="wwaw" /><ref name="wwss" /> They live in Centreville and Wetumpka, Alabama.<ref name="node">Don Noble, [https://www.apr.org/arts-life/2012-08-15/the-node "The Node,"] apr.org (15 August 2012). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref>

===Views=== As of 2001, Perdue was a member of the League of the South (since renamed), an American organization which the ADL and SPLC have characterized as "Neo-Confederate" and "white supremacist."<ref name="knipfel" /><ref>[https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/league-south-los League of the South, adl.org.]</ref><ref>[https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/league-south/ League of the South at splcenter.org.]</ref>

==Work== Perdue's novels are picaresques, built of "disjointed episodes."<ref name="node" /><ref name="whitehouse">''The New York Times'', 24 November 1991.</ref> He explains: "I don't believe that prose should be translucent. I don't believe that plot is all that matters. I believe that language matters greatly. ... My books have very little plot. I don't even like plot."<ref name="knipfel" /> Perdue often incorporates elements of fantasy (like active volcanoes in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Alabama)<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781880909249 ''Publishers Weekly'' (3 October 1994).]</ref> or, in later novels, science fiction (like the "escrubilator," an indescribable "omni-competent" machine).<ref>Greg Johnson, [https://counter-currents.com/2013/08/turning-the-world-around-tito-perdues-the-node/ "Turning the World Around: Tito Perdue's ''The Node,''"] ''Counter-Currents'' (16 August 2013). Retrieved 9 September 2014.</ref>

===The Pefley sequence=== Many of Perdue's novels chronicle the life of Leland "Lee" Pefley,<ref name="gsym" /> an ''alter ego'' who, Perdue explains, "actually carries out actions that his creator would often wish to perform if he but had the courage."<ref>Derek Turner, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090530164952/https://www.quarterly-review.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/perdue.pdf "A Visionary Reactionary,"] ''The Quarterly Review'' (spring 2008), p. 4. Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref> In narrative order, these are:<ref name="kurtagic" /><ref>Adam J. Young, [https://archive.org/details/heritage_and_destiny_87/page/n15/mode/2up?view=theater "Book Review: ''Though We Be Dead Our Day Will Come'' [''sic''<nowiki>] - by Tito Perdue,"</nowiki>] ''Heritage and Destiny'', no. 87 (November - December 2018), p. 17.</ref>

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Title !! Lee's age in novel !! Publication date |- | ''The Smut Book'' || 11 || 2020 |- | ''Morning Crafts'' || 13 || 2012 |- | ''The Sweet-Scented Manuscript'' || at university || 2004 |- | ''The New Austerities'' || 42 || 1994 |- | ''Journey to a Location'' || 70 || 2021 |- | ''Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Shall Come'' || 70 || 2018 |- | ''Materials for All Future Historians'' || 71 || 2019 |- | ''Lee'' || 72 || 1991 |- | ''Fields of Asphodel'' || in the afterlife || 2007 |}

An aged Pefley also features prominently in the first half of ''Reuben''.<ref name="tuggle">Mike C. Tuggle, [https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/starry-eyed-varlet/ "Starry-Eyed Varlet,"] abbevilleinstitute.org (9 May 2014). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref> The lives of Lee's forebears are chronicled in ''Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture'' and the four-volume ''William's House'', for which Perdue drew on records of his own family history.<ref name="knipfel" />

==Reception== ===Critical reception=== Perdue's novels have encountered "critical but not much popular success."<ref name="noble" /> Jim Knipfel and Gary Heidt have named Perdue among their favourite writers.<ref name="knipfel" /><ref>[https://www.barbarademarcobarrett.com/2008/08/qa-with-literary-agent-gary-heidt/ Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, "Q&A with Literary Agent Gary Heidt," barbarademarcobarrett.com (7 August 2008).] Retrieved 9 September 2014.</ref> For Knipfel, Perdue is "without question, one of the most important contemporary Southern writers we have" and "among the most important American writers of the early 21st century."<ref name="gsym">Jim Knipfel, [https://web.archive.org/web/20040627155933/https://www.nypress.com/16/32/news&columns/eslackjaw.cfm "Go South, Young Man,"] ''New York Press'', vol. 16, no. 32 (2003). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref>

Critics have commented on Perdue's "idiosyncratic" prose.<ref name="noble" /> Anne Whitehouse of ''The New York Times'' finds ''Lee'' "vitriolic and hallucinatory, yet surprisingly lucid, producing a portrait both exceedingly strange and troubling."<ref name="whitehouse" /> In the ''New York Press'', Knipfel praises Perdue's "fluid, consciously musical prose,"<ref name="gsym" /> "full of rage but under complete control," noting that it becomes "progressively textured and more savage" with time.<ref name="knipfel" /> However, ''Publishers Weekly'' finds that ''Lee'' "sinks under the weight of its own pretensions";<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-941423-39-7 ''Publishers Weekly'', 29 July 1991.] Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref> and Dick Roraback of the ''Los Angeles Times'' complains of Perdue's eccentric (mis)usages in ''The New Austerities''.<ref>Dick Roraback, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-01-15-bk-20047-story.html "Fiction,"] ''Los Angeles Times'', 15 January 1995. Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref>

Thomas Fleming calls the Pefley sequence "some of the best satire on contemporary America";<ref>Thomas Fleming, "A Lost Art," ''Chronicles'' (December 1996), p. 35.</ref> and ''Kirkus Reviews'' notes the "marvelous black comedy" in ''Lee''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tito-perdue/lee/|title=''Lee'' by Tito Perdue|work=Kirkus Reviews|date=June 15, 1991|accessdate=October 18, 2016}}</ref> Antoine Wilson of the ''Los Angeles Times'' finds "tone-deaf caricature" in some satirical passages of ''Fields of Asphodel'', but praises its "utterly charming and brilliantly comic" ''denouement''.<ref>Antoine Wilson, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jul-15-bk-wilson15-story.html "The Misanthrope,"] ''Los Angeles Times'' (15 July 2007). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref>

===Scholarly reception=== ''Lee'' is discussed in Bill Kauffman's analysis of secessionist literary fiction in ''Bye Bye, Miss American Empire'' (2010).<ref>Kauffman, Bill. ''Bye Bye, Miss American Empire: Neighborhood Patriots, Backcountry Rebels, and Their Underdog Crusades to Redraw America's Political Map'' (White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green), p. 188.</ref> In ''Imagining Alternative Worlds'' (2025), Bernhard Forchtner and Christoffer Kølvraa discuss Perdue's fiction as exemplary of the "nostalgic imaginary."<ref>Bernhard Forchtner and Christoffer Kølvraa, [https://www.routledge.com/Imagining-Alternative-Worlds-Far-Right-Fiction-and-the-Power-of-Cultural-Imaginaries/Kolvraa-Forchtner/p/book/9781032250618 ''Imagining Alternative Worlds: Far-Right Fiction and the Power of Cultural Imaginaries''] (Abingdon: Routledge, 2025), chapter 2.</ref>

His academic writing (as Albert Perdue) continues to be cited.<ref>David E. Jones, [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/508617 "Collection Growth in Postwar America: A Critique of Policy and Practice,"] ''Library Trends'', vol. 61, no. 3 (Winter 2013), pp. 587–612.</ref><ref>Angharad Roberts, [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B978008100251300010X "Conceptualising the Library Collection for the Digital World,"] in ''Digital Information Strategies: From Applications and Content to Libraries and People'', ed. David Baker and Wendy Evans (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2016), pp. 143–156.</ref>

===Recognition=== On March 7, 2015, Perdue received the first H. P. Lovecraft Prize for Literature.<ref>Greg Johnson, [https://counter-currents.com/2015/11/the-counter-currents-h-p-lovecraft-prize-for-literature/ "The ''Counter-Currents'' H. P. Lovecraft Prize for Literature,"] ''Counter-Currents'' (12 November 2015). Retrieved 9 September 2024.</ref> The trophy was a porcelain bust of Lovecraft by Charles Krafft.<ref>Jillian Steinhauer, [https://hyperallergic.com/254089/white-nationalist-artist-charles-krafft-designs-award-for-right-wing-publisher/ "White Nationalist Artist Charles Krafft Designs Award for Right-Wing Publisher,"] ''Hyperallergic'' (16 November 2015). Retrieved 9 September 2015.</ref>

==Publications==

=== Novels === *''Lee'', Four Walls Eight Windows, 1991 ({{ISBN|9780941423397}}); 2nd ed., Overlook Press, 2007 ({{ISBN|978-1-58567-872-3}}); 3rd ed., Arktos, 2019 ({{ISBN|9781912975280}}). *''The New Austerities'', Peachtree Press, 1994 ({{ISBN|978-1-56145-086-2}}); 2nd ed., Standard American, 2023 ({{ISBN|9781642640359}}). *''Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture'', Baskerville Press, 1994 ({{ISBN|978-1-880909-24-9}}); 2nd ed., Standard American, 2023 ({{ISBN|9781642640311}}). *''The Sweet-Scented Manuscript'', Baskerville Press, 2004 ({{ISBN|978-1-880909-68-3}}); 2nd ed., Arktos, 2019 ({{ISBN|9781912975389}}). *''Fields of Asphodel'', Overlook Press, 2007 ({{ISBN|978-1-58567-871-6}}); 2nd ed., Standard American, 2023 ({{ISBN|9781642640212}}). *''The Node'', Nine-Banded Books, 2011 ({{ISBN|978-1-61658-351-4}}). *''Morning Crafts'', Arktos, 2013 ({{ISBN|978-1-907166-57-0}}). *''Reuben'', Washington Summit, 2014 ({{ISBN|9781593680237}}); 2nd ed., Standard American, 2022 ({{ISBN|9781642641950}}). *''The Builder: William's House I'', Arktos, 2015 ({{ISBN|9781910524343}}). *''The Churl: William's House II'', Arktos, 2015 ({{ISBN|9781910524336}}). *''The Engineer: William's House III'', Arktos, 2016 ({{ISBN|9781910524954}}). *''The Bachelor: William's House IV'', Arktos, 2016 ({{ISBN|9781910524381}}). *''Cynosura'', Counter-Currents, 2016 ({{ISBN|9781940933863}}). *''The Philatelist'', Counter-Currents, 2017 ({{ISBN|9781940933986}}). *''Philip'', Arktos, 2017 ({{ISBN|9781912079889}}). *''The Bent Pyramid'', Arktos, 2018 ({{ISBN|9781912079858}}). *''Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Shall Come'', Counter-Currents, 2018 ({{ISBN|9781940933894}}). *''The Gizmo'', Counter-Currents, 2019 ({{ISBN|9781642641202}}). *''The Smut Book'', Counter-Currents, 2020 ({{ISBN|9781642641424}}). *''Love Song of the Australopiths'', Standard American, 2020 ({{ISBN|9781642641462}}). *''Materials for All Future Historians'', Standard American, 2020 ({{ISBN|9781642641639}}). *''Journey to a Location'', Arktos, 2021 ({{ISBN|9781914208263}}). *''Vade Mecum'', Standard American, 2021 ({{ISBN|9781642641837}}).

===Short Fiction=== *[https://counter-currents.com/2015/03/good-things-in-tiny-places/ "Good Things in Tiny Places," ''Counter-Currents'' (12 March 2015).]

===Nonfiction=== *[https://counter-currents.com/2013/09/alex-kurtagics-mister-2/ Review] of Alex Kurtagić, ''Mister'', in ''Counter-Currents'' (16 September 2013). *[https://counter-currents.com/2014/03/decadence/ "Decadence," ''Counter-Currents'' (19 March 2014).]

===Contributions to volumes=== *Preface to Derek Turner, ''Sea Changes'' (Whitefish, MT: Washington Summit, 2012). *Foreword to Greg Johnson, ''In Defense of Prejudice'' (San Fancisco: Counter-Currents, 2017). *Preface to Jean Raspail, ''The Camp of the Saints'' (Petoskey, MI: Social Contract Press, 2018).<ref>[https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839461778-005/html Enrico Schlickeisen, "The Origins of Replacement Narratives and the Resemanticization of Feminism in Two Novels of the Far Right," in ''Subversive Semantics in Political and Cultural Discourse: The Production of Popular Knowledge'', ed. Gesa Mackenthun and Jörn Dosch (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2023), pp. 100–1.]</ref>

===Academic writing (as Albert Perdue)=== *[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/bai/perdue.htm "Hertzberg's Napoleonana,"] ''Books at Iowa'', no. 10 (April 1969), pp. 3–10. *[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0364640878900054 "Conflicts in Collection Development,"] ''Library Acquisitions: Practice and Theory'', vol. 2, no. 2, (1978), pp. 123–6. *[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41930347 Review] of Eliyahu Ashtor, ''The Medieval Near East: Social and Economic History'', in ''Journal of Asian History'', vol. 13, no. 2 (1979), pp. 191–2. *[https://archive.org/details/reprintbulletinb0000unse/page/n322/mode/2up Review] of Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes, ''Le Pélerinage à la Mekke: Étude d'Histoire Religieuse'', in ''The Reprint Bulletin Book Reviews'', vol. xxiv, no. 1 (1979), p. 5. *[https://www.jstor.org/stable/41930377 Review] of Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid-Marsot, ''Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam'', in ''Journal of Asian History'', vol. 14, no. 2 (1980), pp. 149–50. *[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1860663 Review] of Eliyahu Ashtor, ''A Social and Economic History of the Near East in the Middle Ages'', in ''The American Historical Review'', vol. 85, no. 2 (April 1980), p. 439.

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.titoperdue.com Official Website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perdue, Tito}} Category:1938 births Category:20th-century American novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:American male novelists Category:American expatriates in Chile Category:Living people Category:Novelists from Alabama Category:People from Cachapoal Province Category:Writers of American Southern literature Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers