Tito Perdue (born 1938) is an American writer. His works include his 1991 debut novel Lee.

Life

Perdue was born in Chile to American parents. He was brought up in Anniston, Alabama. He married his wife Judy when he was 18. He has degrees in English literature, European history and library science. He has worked as a bookkeeper, a library administrator and an apprentice insurance underwriter throughout the Midwest and Northeast, before he moved back to the South in 1982 to pursue a career as a full-time writer.^[1]

Work

Perdue's Sweet-Scented Manuscript was completed within a year of his "retirement," but was not published until 2004 when it was issued by Baskerville Press. The novel is a love story that attempts to convey the impressions and yearnings of an 18-year-old boy, Leland Pefley, in his first exploration of the world; the novel is largely autobiographical. Perdue's next novel and his first published, Lee, was about the same Leland Pefley, now an old man, bitter, hostile, angry at a world that no longer recognized the values and culture of the 1950s. He spewed venom at those who, surrounded by beauty, culture and literature, didn't bother to avail themselves of it. Other works include The Node, Fields of Asphodel and The New Austerities, which depicts Lee Pefley's flight from New York City back to his ancestral home in Alabama. That same year, Baskerville Press published Perdue's Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture, a strange fictional account of an Alabama man, school teacher, rural route mail carrier, and farmer.^[1]

In the pages of Kirkus Reviews it was said Perdue "writes convincingly and iconoclastically… a marvelous black comedy that is sometimes as astringent as John Yount's Toots in Solitude…"^[2]

Political opinions

Perdue is a member of the League of the South.^[1]

Publications

• Lee – Four Walls Eight Windows, 1991; repr. Overlook Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-58567-872-3.
• The New Austerities – Peachtree Press, 1994. ISBN 978-1-56145-086-2.
• Opportunities in Alabama Agriculture – Baskerville Press, 1994. ISBN 978-1-880909-24-9.
• The Sweet-Scented Manuscript – Baskerville Press, 2004. ISBN 978-1-880909-68-3.
• Fields of Asphodel – Overlook Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-58567-871-6.
• The Node – Nine-Banded Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1-61658-351-4.
• Morning Crafts – Arktos, 2013. ISBN 978-1-907166-57-0.
• Reuben – Radix, 2014; Standard American, 2022. ISBN 9781593680237
• The Builder (William’s House, vol. 1) – Arktos, 2015. ISBN 9781910524343
• The Churl (William’s House, vol. 2) – Arktos, 2015. ISBN 9781910524336
• The Engineer (William’s House, vol. 3) – Arktos, 2016. ISBN 9781910524954
• The Bachelor (William’s House, vol. 4) – 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