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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
Toole, John Kennedy (1937-1969) A Confederacy of Dunces.
Baton Rouge, LA and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1980.
First edition, octavo; one of 2,500 copies; bound in the publisher's full cloth, light olive endpapers; with the first state pictorial jacket featuring Walker Percy's blurb on rear panel, price intact (a fine copy with only a few tiny nicks to jacket); 9 x 5 3/4 in.
Posthumously published 10 years after Toole's death, A Confederacy of Dunces finally reached its reading public with the help of writer Walker Percy, who was given the manuscript by the author's mother. Rebuffed by publishers in life, Toole's lack of recognition consistently plagued him, contributing heavily to his increasing paranoia and depression. He died by suicide at the age of 32, leaving the manuscript on top of an armoire.
Two years after his death, Thelma Toole found the book and began pitching it to various publishers. In 1976, Walker Percy read John Kennedy Toole's manuscript, and four years later, ensured its publication. The first edition was met with high critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year.
