Person · Open Library
- Born
- 1937
- Died
- 1969
- Works
- 4
Top works
- La conjura de los necios
- Berit shel kesilim
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- The Neon Bible
via Open Library + Wikidata
Film & TV
Writing
via TMDB
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 763
- Total plays
- 10,710
John Kennedy Toole (December 17, 1937–March 26, 1969) was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/John+Kennedy+Toole">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Article
John Kennedy Toole (/ˈtuːl/; 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, he 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". Toole was a successful and popular professor, first at University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette), then Hunter College, and finally St. Mary's Dominican College in New Orleans. Having persuaded Simon & Schuster, however, to accept A Confederacy of Dunces, he 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.
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1937 births1969 deaths1969 suicides20th-century American male writers20th-century American novelistsAlcee Fortier High School alumniAmerican male novelistsAmerican people of French descentAmerican people of Irish descentAmerican satirical novelistsBurials at Greenwood Cemetery, New OrleansColumbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni