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, 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 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.
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. He returned to Columbia in pursuit of a PhD. While at Columbia, he taught at Hunter College. He also taught in Louisiana. During the early part of his academic career, his colleagues valued his wit and gift for mimicry, which he displayed at parties. 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 quite talented, but did not regard the book's themes and conflicts as sufficiently meaningful, or culminating in 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; he ran a garden hose from the car exhaust into the car window. 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.
Early life Toole was born to John Dewey Toole Jr. and Thelma Ducoing Toole. Kennedy was the name of Thelma's grandmother.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 5 The first of the Creole Ducoing family arrived in Louisiana from France in the early 19th century, and the Tooles immigrated to America from Ireland during the Great Famine of the 1840s.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 6Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 7–8 Toole's father worked as a car salesman, and his mother, forced to give up her teaching job when she married (as was the custom at the time and place), gave private lessons in music, speech, and dramatic expression.Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 12–3Fletcher. pg. 64 Toole was known to friends and family as "Ken" until the final few months of his life, when he insisted on being called John. As a child, Toole had an intense affection for his black nursemaid Beulah Matthews, who cared for him when his parents were both working.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 18
Toole's highly cultured mother was a controlling woman, especially with her son. His father was less involved and sometimes complained of his lack of influence in their child's upbringing.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 27 Despite this, he and his father bonded through a shared interest in baseball and cars.Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 27–8 Toole's mother chose the friends he could associate with, and felt his cousins on his father's side were too common for him to be around.Fletcher. pg. 73 Toole received high marks in elementary school and, from a young age, expressed a desire to excel academically.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 22Nevils and Hardy. pg. 24 He skipped ahead a grade, from first to second, after taking an IQ test at the age of six, and would also eventually skip the fourth grade.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 25Booth, S. Toole, John Kennedy (1937–1969), novelist. American National Biography. Retrieved 8 Jun. 2022, from https://www-anb-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1602284.
When Toole was ten, his mother gathered a group of child stage entertainers she named the Junior Variety Performers. The troupe, with Toole as its star, consisted of 50 children of varying skills and ages.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 28 While the troupe was well-received, Toole also engaged in other entertainment ventures, such as playing the lead in three productions of the Children's Workshop Theatre of New Orleans, emceeing a radio show called Telekids, modeling for newspaper ads, and developing a solo show of comic impersonations entitled Great Lovers of the World.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 29Fletcher. pg. 54
An excellent student, Toole curtailed his stage work when he entered high school (Alcée Fortier High). He concentrated on his academic work.Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 29–30 Toole wrote for the school newspaper Silver and Blue, worked on the yearbook The Tarpon, and won several essay contests on subjects such as the Louisiana Purchase and the American Merchant Marine.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 32 He took up debating, a skill his father had used to win the state debate championship in high school.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 10 Toole spoke at gatherings of civic organizations such as Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs. Toole's father bought him an Oldsmobile, in which Toole delivered newspapers at the age of 13, despite the legal driving age being 15.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 34 In high school, Toole spent a lot of time at the home of classmate Larry McGee, and dated McGee's sister, Jane. Jane later said that Toole never wanted to go home and would purposely spend almost all of his free time at the McGees'.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 37 With the McGees, Toole would engage in mischievous pranks and go on double dates with Larry and his girlfriend, Buzz. The couples spent their free time at the local pool or cruising in Toole's car.Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 34–7
As a teenager in 1954, Toole made his first trip out of Louisiana. On a field trip, he visited Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. He especially enjoyed New York and filled a cherished scrapbook with pictures from his visit, which included trips on the New York City subway, an excursion on a boat in the New York Harbor, and visits to the Statue of Liberty, Chinatown, and Times Square; he also enjoyed a performance of The Rockettes at the Radio City Music Hall and brought home a program.Fletcher. pg. 24–5
Toole became the editor of the news section of the school newspaper, and maintained high marks throughout high school.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 38 He received many awards, including a National Merit Scholarship, selection to the National Honor Society, and being named the Most Intelligent Senior Boy by the student body.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 40 He was one of two New Orleanians voted outstanding citizen at the Pelican (now Louisiana) Boys State convention and he was invited back to serve the following year as a counsellor. He also took part in the Newman Club, a Catholic organization for teenagers, where he won an award for outstanding student in the group. He received a full scholarship to Tulane University at age 17.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 41
During his senior year, Toole wrote The Neon Bible, a short Southern Gothic novel that has been compared in style to Flannery O'Connor, a favorite author of Toole's. The book's protagonist, David, had lived with his family in a "little white house in town that had a real roof you could sleep under when it rained,"Kakutani, Michiko. Books of The Times; A Novelist's Story of Love, Pain and (Neon) Signs of Life, The New York Times, May 12, 1989, accessed September 24, 2010. before his father lost his job, forcing the family into a small shoddily built home.'Neon Bible' the powerful voice of writer who died far too young, Deseret News, June 4, 1989, accessed October 8, 2010. Set in 1940s Mississippi, the backwoods Baptist community setting is similar to a location to which Toole had traveled with a high-school friend for a literary contest.Fletcher. pg. 159 The novel's sudden outburst of violence at the end has been described as incongruous with what preceded it.
Toole later described the novel in correspondence with an editor, "In 1954, when I was 16, I wrote a book called The Neon Bible, a grim, adolescent, sociological attack upon the hatreds caused by the various Calvinist religions in the South—and the fundamentalist mentality is one of the roots of what was happening in Alabama, etc. The book, of course, was bad, but I sent it off a couple of times anyway."Nevils and Hardy. pg. 143 Neon Bible failed to attract interest from publishers and did not appear in print until after Toole's death.
College studies and professorships In high school, Toole, as editor of the school newspaper, had written, under a pseudonym, a column of gossip and wit, Fish Tales, and while at Tulane he worked on the college newspaper, the Hullabaloo, writing articles, reviewing books, and drawing cartoons.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 42 The cartoons were noted for their subtlety and sophistication. At Tulane he first majored in engineering on the recommendation of his father; however, after a few weeks, he changed his major to English, explaining to his mother, "I'm losing my culture."Fletcher. pg. 98 Around this time, Toole began associating with a local blues band that performed at high schools, in the French Quarter, and in the Irish Channel. Because Toole's classmates and family looked down on the French Quarter as being for tourists and the Irish Channel as a place for lowlifes, Toole kept his trips to those places a secret.Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 46–7 His closest friend was guitarist Don Stevens, nicknamed "Steve Cha-Cha," with whom he bonded over their shared love of blues music and Beat poets.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 47 Stevens also had a side job pushing a hot tamale cart around town and, on days when he was unavailable for work, Toole would fill in for him. According to Stevens's bandmate Sidney Snow, Toole loved eating the tamales.Nevils and Hardy. pg. 48 Toole later used these experiences as material for his novel A Confederacy of Dunces, whose protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly pushes a hot dog cart around town, usually eating most of the profits. Also, like Reilly, Toole later worked at a family business that manufactured men's clothing, Haspel Brothers. He worked for J. B. Tonkel, who married one of the Haspel daughters. "Ken watched the Haspels' business dealings with great interest, absorbing and remembering their troubles and intrigues," and he later constructed the similar Levy Pants Company in A Confederacy of Dunces, with Gus Levy and his wife becoming significant supporting characters in the novel.