A Confederacy of Dunces [Second Printing in First Edition Wrapper]

Toole, John Kennedy; Percy, Walker (Foreword)

ISBN 10: 0807106577 / ISBN 13: 9780807106570

Published by Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London, 1980

About this Item

Signed by professor and author Walker Percy on tipped-in leaf prior half-title page: "Walker Percy." Percy, a professor and author himself, was instrumental in having this discovered gem miraculously published. 1980 at title page and copyright. Stated second printing. Light beige w/hint of green, full cloth boards, black stylized spine titles, light shelf wear. Pages near fine with attractive toning; no writing. Light olive endpapers. Bind fine, square; hinges intact. Original first edition dust wrapper without Sun-Times review blurb at back panel, moderate edge wear, rub, crease; unclipped 12.95, protected in new clear sleeve. Scarce very good second printing in same first edition wrapper. The author of this hilarious satire, John Kennedy Toole, took his own life at 32 after facing consistent rejection from nearly every American publisher. Toole's mother, finally was able to have her son's work posthumously published; and, as fate would have it, the satirical novel won the Pulitzer Prize. "A masterwork of comedy. pungeant slapstick, sature and intellectual incongruities. make for a grand comic fugue" (New York Time). Presented here is "a great slob of a man in violent revolt against the entire twentieth century!" This book's unusual path to success began in 1976 when John Kennedy Toole's mother Thelma, using a walker, hobbled into the office of novelist Walker Percy at Loyola University. She was followed by a chauffeur carrying a manuscript that she told Mr. Percy was a ''masterpiece''. Percy reluctantly agreed to read it. He became entranced as he read, and decided that the novel was ''a major achievement, a huge comic-satiric-tragic one-of-a-kind rendering of life in New Orleans.'' After several more publishers rejected the book, Louisiana State University Press agreed to take a chance with a first printing of only 2,500. The soon to be Pulitzer Prize winner went on to 50,000 copies in hard cover and nearly 600,000 in paperback within three years. Manufactured in the United States of America. 338 pages. Insured post. Size: 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.

Seller Inventory # 022312

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Confederacy of Dunces [Second Printing in First Edition Wrapper]
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London
• Publication Date: 1980
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807106577
• ISBN 13: 9780807106570
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Lindlof, Ed (Wrapper Illustration)
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Contributor

About this title

Synopsis

After more than three decades, the peerless wit and indulgent absurdity of A Confederacy of Dunces continues to attract new readers. Though the manuscript was rejected by many publishers during Toole's lifetime, his mother successfully published the book years after her son's suicide, and it won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. This literary underdog and comic masterpiece has sold more than two million copies in twenty-three languages.

The 35th anniversary edition of A Confederacy of Dunces celebrates Toole's novel as well as one of the most memorable protagonists in American literature, Ignatius J. Reilly, whom Walker Percy dubbed "slob extraordinaire, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one." Set in New Orleans with a wild cast of characters including Ignatius and his mother; Miss Trixie, the octogenarian assistant accountant at Levi Pants; inept, wan Patrolman Mancuso; Darlene, the Bourbon Street stripper with a penchant for poultry; and Jones, the jivecat in space-age dark glasses, the novel serves as an outlandish but believable tribute to a city defined by its parade of eccentric denizens.

The genius of A Confederacy of Dunces is reaffirmed as successive generations embrace this extravagant satire. Adulation for Toole's comic epic remains as intense today as thirty-five years ago.

Review

It's been hailed as a masterpiece and reviled as trash, but A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole has never been lightly dismissed. By creating Ignatius J. Reilly, a bigger-than-life bag of wind stuffed with some of the most comically outrageous and disturbingly insightful opinions ever put to paper, Toole made an indelible mark on the landscape of American literature--a feat recognized with the posthumous publication of this novel, followed by a Pulitzer Prize. Forced to wade the lower depths of New Orleans society, the gargantuan Ignatius, his poor mother in tow, takes us on a tour de force through the back alleys and juke joints of the French Quarter of New Orleans as he implores the gods, railing against the hypocrisy of contemporary politics and the crushing weight of late capitalism. "The luminous years ... dimmed into dross; Fortuna's wheel had turned ... Having once been so high, humanity fell so low. What had once been dedicated to the soul was now dedicated to the sale." Toole's suicide at 32 silenced a uniquely promising literary voice, denying his critics and fans the opportunity to determine whether his talent was a flash in the pan or a first spark of genius. Read A Confederacy of Dunces and you'll no doubt have formed your own inflexible opinion, which you'll defend tenaciously against all reason. --George Laney, Amazon.com