A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously in 1981, is one of American literature's great comic novels, centered on the magnificently grotesque figure of Ignatius J. Reilly, a medieval-minded misfit raging against the modern world from the streets of New Orleans. The novel's exuberant humor, richly drawn characters, and affectionate satire of New Orleans culture have earned it a devoted readership that continues to grow decades after its publication. Its tragic backstory, involving Toole's suicide and his mother's tireless campaign to see the manuscript published, adds a poignant dimension to a book that is itself a celebration of stubborn, glorious eccentricity.

Toole completed the novel in the early 1960s, but it was rejected by publishers during his lifetime, a failure that contributed to his deepening depression and eventual suicide in 1969 at the age of thirty-one. His mother, Thelma Toole, refused to let the manuscript perish and persistently sought a publisher, eventually persuading the novelist Walker Percy to read it. Percy's enthusiastic support led to publication by Louisiana State University Press in 1980, and the Pulitzer Prize the following year transformed a forgotten manuscript into one of the most beloved American novels of the twentieth century.