John Kennedy Toole Quote

John Kennedy Toole (; December 17, 1937 – March 26, 1969) was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, whose posthumously published novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. At 16 in 1954, Toole wrote his first novel, The Neon Bible, which he shelved in the same year, not finding a willing publisher; he later dismissed it as "adolescent." After earning a master's degree from Columbia University, he was a successful and popular professor, first at University of Southwestern Louisiana (now ULL), at Hunter College while pursuing a PhD at Columbia (unfinished), and finally in New Orleans. Having persuaded Simon & Schuster, however, to accept A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole was unable to resolve editorial disputes. Due in part to the novel's failure, he suffered from paranoia and depression, dying by suicide at the age of 31.
Toole was born to a middle-class family in New Orleans. From a young age, his mother, Thelma, taught him an appreciation of culture. She was thoroughly involved in his affairs for most of his life, and at times they had a difficult relationship. With his mother's encouragement, Toole became a stage performer at the age of 10 doing comic impressions and acting.
On an academic scholarship, Toole received his bachelor's degree from Tulane University in New Orleans. He then earned an MA in English Literature at Columbia University in New York. Returning there to take a PhD, he taught simultaneously at Hunter College. He also taught at various Louisiana colleges, and during his early career as an academic he was valued on the faculty party circuit for his wit and gift for mimicry. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army, where he taught English to Spanish-speaking recruits in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After receiving a promotion, he used his private office to begin writing A Confederacy of Dunces, which he finished at his parents' home after his discharge.
Toole submitted A Confederacy of Dunces to publisher Simon & Schuster, where it reached editor Robert Gottlieb. Gottlieb considered Toole talented, but somehow did not regard the book's narrative themes and struggles as either meaningful, or coming to a unified end. Despite several revisions, Gottlieb remained unsatisfied, and after the book was rejected by another literary figure, Hodding Carter Jr., Toole shelved the novel. Suffering from depression and feelings of persecution, Toole left home on a journey around the country. He stopped in Biloxi, Mississippi where he died by suicide by running a garden hose in from the exhaust of his car to the cabin. After his death, his mother brought the manuscript of A Confederacy of Dunces to the attention of novelist Walker Percy, who was crucial in the book's publication. In 1981, Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.