Toole, John Kennedy | Two first editions, one inscribed by his mother, and a remarkable recording

Toole, John Kennedy

First editions of A Confederacy of Dunces, one with an inscription from Toole's mother, and an audio cassette. [1980-1981]

A Confederacy of Dunces. London and Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. 8vo (233 x 152 mm). Inscribed by Thelma Ducoing Toole on the front free endpaper. Publisher's green cloth, pictorial dustjacket unclipped, green endpapers; dustjacket lightly rubbed at extremities, with 2 short closed tears and a few tiny chips. Housed in a quarter morocco slipcase with folding chemise. — A Confederacy of Dunces. London: Allen Lane, 1981. 8vo (203 x 130 mm). Publisher's cream cloth, spine gilt lettered, in pictorial dustjacket, unclipped; jacket with a price sticker to the front inside panel and a nearly imperceptible chip at head of spine, otherwise pristine, spine sunned and very slightly bumped at head and foot, top edge lightly soiled. Housed in a quarter morocco slipcase with folding chemise. — Audio cassette tape with a sticker reading "MRS Tool [sic] Tulane A/B 11/2/80" in blue ink. In a plastic cassette case (68 x 107 mm), with paper insert reading "MRS. Toole at Tulane U 11/2/8" in blue ink on front panel and "Thelma Dunning [sic] Toole Performance - Tulane Univ. 11/2/80" typed on spine panel. [With]: A program for the performances at which the recording was made. One leaf (276 x 215 mm). Typed verso and recto; old horizontal fold, stray spots.

Two first editions, one inscribed, with a remarkable recording

A Confederacy of Dunces' storied publication is literary legend. Genius under-recognized, an author’s suicide and the final successful championing by the writer’s mother, rightfully convinced of her son’s singular gift. John Kennedy Toole began the novel ca. 1962 while stationed with the army in Puerto Rico (his rank of Sergeant giving him an office and time to write). He returned to New Orleans in late 1963 after receiving a hardship discharge due to his parents’ poor financial situation. Toole sent his completed manuscript of A Confederacy of Dunces to Simon and Schuster, where it reached editor Robert Gottlieb. Two years of correspondence between author and editor ensued, with Toole becoming increasingly despondent over Gottlieb’s suggested changes. He was ultimately crushed by his work’s final, definitive rejection. Years of slow decline followed, until overcome with depression and paranoia, Toole committed suicide aged 31 in 1969, attaching a garden hose to his car’s exhaust outside a cheap motel in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Thelma Ducoing Toole, John Kennedy’s mother, never gave up hope in her son’s genius. After retrieving a battered manuscript from her son’s bedroom years after his death, she sent it out to publishers and received seven rejections. Finally in 1976, she contacted (or more truthfully put, harassed) the novelist Walker Percy, then teaching at Loyola University in New Orleans. She called Percy and, despite his best efforts to avoid her request to read a long and unpublished novel, he finally succumbed when she appeared at the door of his office holding “a badly smeared scarcely readable carbon” manuscript in her hand. He had hoped that the first few pages, “would be bad enough for me, in good conscience, to read no farther.” He was pleased from the first paragraph reading the book “first with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a prickle of interest, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that it was so good.” Walker Percy and Thelma Toole finally managed to have the book published, though not until 1980, by Louisiana University Press. The book originally sold poorly but enjoyed critical acclaim. It soon started to grow in popularity, and A Confederacy of Dunces went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. Ignatius’ tales continues to be not only the essential New Orleans novel, but one of the best-loved of any post-war American novels.

The two present copies of this legendary book are the first British edition and the first American edition—the latter being inscribed on the night of the book's release party by Thelma Ducoing Toole to a Robert S. Robins, reading, "Appreciations and Regards from John Kennedy Toole's Mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole." Given her hand in the publication of the work, this is as close to a published copy signed by the author as is actually obtainable. In addition, there is a truly extraordinary recording. The book's release party at Tulane University on 2 November 1980 featured a number of musical performances, including by Thelma Toole herself, who sang and played the piano—the present audio cassette contains recordings of her renditions that night. Also included is a program for the event, listing the performers and their songs.

On the whole, this group wonderfully showcases the genesis of this enduring, beloved work—from the first moments of its American release to its first printing abroad.