born May 28, 1916, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.
died May 10, 1990, Covington, La.
U.S. novelist.
He was orphaned in late childhood and was raised by a cousin in Mississippi. While working as a pathologist he contracted tuberculosis; during his recuperation he decided on a writing career and converted to Roman Catholicism. His first and best-known novel, The Moviegoer (1961), introduced his concept of malaise, a sense of spiritual emptiness characteristic of the rootless modern world. His other works, often about the search for faith and love in a New South transformed by industry and technology, include Love in the Ruins (1971), The Second Coming (1980), and The Thanatos Syndrome (1987).