Toole, John Kennedy

An archive comprising: Autograph letter signed ("Ken"), 1 1/2 pages (8 x 5 in.; 203 x 128 mm), San Juan, PR, 7 January 1963, to Patricia, Milton, and Gordon Rickles, Lafayette, La.; horizontal folds; autograph envelope — A Confederacy of Dunces.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.  First edition.  Publisher's cloth.  Dust-jacket; chipped, front inner flap detached.  Dr. Patricia Rickles's copy, with her annotations and underlinings in red ink — The New Orleans Review.  Vol. 5, no. 4.  New Orleans, 1978.  Compliments slip from Mrs. Thelma Toole laid in.  First appearance of an excerpt from Confederacy  — 10 children's books from the library of John Kennedy Toole, 3 with his juvenile inscriptions — 3 critical studies of Toole from the library of Dr. Patricia Rickles.

Given to the present owner by Dr. Patricia Rickles

MacLauchlin, Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of 'A Confederacy of Dunces', pp. 146–147 (quoting the present letter in full) 

Condition as described in catalogue.
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A fine letter from John Kennedy Toole to Milton and Patricia Rickles and their son Gordon.  Patricia Rickles was the inspiration for the character Myrna Minkoff in A Confederacy of Dunces.  In his study of Toole and the novel, Cory MacLauchlin describes the Rickleses as Toole's "surrogate Lafayette family."  The letter explains why Toole did not visit the family during his Christmas stay in New Orleans: "The prospect of travelling via Greyhound stopped me in the planning stage."  The letter also mentions Robert Byrne, widely considered to the basis for the character Ignatius J. Reilly in the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.  The letter is quoted in its entirety in MacLauchlin's book.  Scarce.  This is the first Toole letter to appear at auction in 30 years.

The children's books in the collection were given by Toole to Gordon Rickles.  The books include several of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, and three bear Toole's childhood inscriptions.