The book fell into the hands of senior editor Robert Gottlieb, who had a two-year back-and-forth with Toole over whether A Confederacy of Dunceswas publishable. Gottlieb believed Toole was supremely talented and the book was quite good; however, he felt various stories in the book were unresolved, and it lacked a concrete through line. Toole, on the other hand, was not willing to change what he wrote and, ultimately, accepted defeat and fell into a depression.
Toole's alcoholism and depression eventually resulted in paranoia that led him to take his own life with his manuscript unpublished in 1969. He was only 31.
View this post on InstagramThen in 1976, Thelma learned that author Walker Percy was joining the faculty at Loyola University in New Orleans. When Percy ignored her repeated phone calls, Thelma literally pushed her way into his office to demand he read the manuscript. Percy loved the book, saying:
While it still took more than three years, eventually Louisiana State University Press published A Confederacy of Dunces in 1980, 11 years after Toole's death. Percy provided the foreword.
A Confederacy of Dunces follows protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly, a brilliant but unmotivated 30-year-old who lives with his mother in New Orleans. While trying to secure a job, Ignatius has multiple misadventures and continuously finds himself in preposterous situations with various characters across the French Quarter. Ignatius' one-man journey continues to get more and more ludicrous throughout the novel, resulting in a totally humorous and cult classic story.
Related: Best-Selling Classic Novel, Written By a 21-Year-Old, Became a ‘Most Loved Book’
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