JOHN KENNEDY TOOLE LETTER REMAINS IN LOUISIANA

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette has acquired a rare personal letter and other memorabilia associated with John Kennedy Toole, the author of “A Confederacy of Dunces” who briefly taught at ULL’s predecessor and is believed to have drawn inspiration there for characters in that classic book.
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The letter in the collection was written in January 1963 to English professors Patricia and Milton Rickels at the former University of Southwestern Louisiana from Puerto Rico, where Toole was serving in the U.S. Army and working on “A Confederacy of Dunces.”

Confederacy is one of my favorite books about my beloved New Orleans.  The book is a masterpiece, which Toole could not get published in his lifetime.  His mother, Thelma, believed that the failure to publish contributed to the despair that led Toole to take his own life at the age of 31.

Toole submitted Dunces to publisher Simon & Schuster, where it reached noted editor Robert Gottlieb. Gottlieb considered Toole talented but felt his comic novel was essentially pointless. Despite several revisions, Gottlieb remained unsatisfied, and after the book was rejected by another literary figure, Hodding Carter Jr., he shelved the novel.

What were they thinking?  Kudos to Thelma Toole, who would not give up her hope for publication, and pestered the novelist, Walker Percy, until he read the manuscript.  After reading it, Percy submitted the manuscript to LSU Press with an enthusiastic recommendation, and they published the book.  Confederacy became a best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1980.

Many years ago,  I met the writer at a couple of parties.  He was known then as Ken Toole, and I did not make the connection with the writer of Confederacy for years and years.  All I remember of him is that he was a quiet type.  A college friend dated him briefly, and she confirmed to me that he was very quiet - "One of those situations where I racked my brain to come up with some topics to discuss.  Always polite and punctual and private."  She does not have letters from him.

I'm pleased that ULL bought the letter, and it will remain in Louisiana.

UPDATE: Ignatius on his bus trip from New Orleans to Baton Rouge :

Do you remember the time that I went to Baton Rouge in one of those? I vomited several times. The driver had to stop the bus somewhere in the swamps to let me get off and walk around for a while. The other passengers were rather angry. They must have had stomachs of iron to ride in that awful machine. Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins."

"Of course," Ignatius continued, mistaking his mother's rapt look for interest, "that was the only time that I had ever been out of New Orleans in my life. I think that perhaps it was the lack of a center of orientation that might have upset me. Speeding along in that bus was like hurtling into the abyss.  By the time we had left the swamps and reached those rolling hills near Baton Rouge, I was getting afraid that some rural rednecks might toss bombs at the bus. They love to attack vehicles, which are a symbol of progress, I guess.”