This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/26/2022
TOOLE, John Kennedy (1937–1969). A Confederacy of Dunces. Foreword by Walker Percy. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. 8vo. Original publisher’s pale green cloth; original unclipped dust jacket (tiny spots of wear at extreme ends of spine, else fine). FIRST EDITION, of the author’s Pulitzer Prize–winning posthumous novel and one of only 2500 copies printed. In the FIRST ISSUE dust jacket with a review by Walker Percy on the rear panel. INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR’S MOTHER IN THE YEAR OF PUBLICATION: “Nov. 2, 1980 / Appreciation and regards from John Kennedy Toole’s mother / Thelma Ducoing Toole / to / Caroline Frances Baker”. “This novel has a sad history behind it. The author sent it to every publisher in America, all of whom rejected it. After the final rejection (by Knopf) Toole committed suicide. He was only thirty–two. His mother gave the manuscript to Walker Percy, who secured its publication by Louisiana State University Press, and it was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize. Its virtues have now been universally recognized… New Orleans can be the same again after Toole’s comic masterpiece” (Burgess, 99 Novels 125). A FINE COPY with a wonderful association.