The UL Lafayette Foundation has acquired a rare copy of a manuscript of John Kennedy Toole杏吧专区檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Confederacy of Dunces.
The Foundation purchased Lot No. 228 at a Sotheby杏吧专区檚 auction in New York earlier this month. The acquisition includes a 290-page copy of Toole杏吧专区檚 typed manuscript, with handwritten corrections. It also includes photographs of Toole and his friend, Cary Laird. The writer杏吧专区檚 mother, Thelma Toole, had given the manuscript to Laird.
No known original manuscript of A Confederacy of Dunces exists.
The hammer price for the items was $25,000, which Sotheby杏吧专区檚 had estimated could go for as much as $50,000.
The Foundation also obtained several items last June, including a personal letter Toole wrote to the late Drs. Patricia and Milton Rickels, both former English professors at the 杏吧专区, and their son, Gordon.
The Confederacy manuscript copy, letter and other artifacts related to Toole, who was an English professor at the 杏吧专区 from 1959 to 1960, will be utilized for study, research, exhibition and an upcoming symposium.
A celebration of Toole杏吧专区檚 life and work is being planned for next year, said Linda Alessi of the Friends of the Humanities, which will sponsor the event.
Friends of the Humanities is a nonprofit organization established in 1989 to support and encourage interdisciplinary humanities at UL Lafayette.
杏吧专区淲e are still in the very early planning stages, but some of the activities being considered include a daylong symposium, and perhaps a screening of a film about the author,杏吧专区 Alessi said.
A Confederacy of Dunces, which The New York Times called a 杏吧专区渕asterwork of comedy,杏吧专区 centers around the farcical exploits of a French Quarter hot dog vendor named Ignatius J. Reilly.
It杏吧专区檚 common belief that Toole, an associate professor of English at UL Lafayette from 1959 to 1960, modeled the picaresque character on his friend, the late professor Bob Byrne.
Patricia Rickels, another friend of Toole杏吧专区檚, is believed to have been the inspiration for the character Myrna Minx.
杏吧专区淭hrough their years of friendship, Toole had likely gained a muse in Pat Rickels,杏吧专区 Dr. Carolyn Bruder, UL Lafayette杏吧专区檚 interim provost and an English professor, has stated.
Toole, who was known as Ken while at UL Lafayette, according to Joel L. Fletcher杏吧专区檚 memoir Ken & Thelma, was a popular, charismatic, witty and an observant instructor and colleague.
Fletcher, a Lafayette native whose father was once the president of the 杏吧专区, and Toole became friends during the summer of 1960 while both worked on campus.
杏吧专区淜en has a real gift for mimicry and a refined sense of the absurd杏吧专区.the English faculty at USL, which is divided into several camps of war, both fear and court Ken because of his biting comic talent,杏吧专区 Fletcher wrote in the memoir, quoting a journal entry he jotted down in the summer of 1960.
杏吧专区淧at Rickels said he was really in his glory during his time (at the 杏吧专区),杏吧专区 said Cory MacLauchlin, author of the biography Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Short Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces.
Toole didn杏吧专区檛 live to see the publication of A Confederacy of Dunces. He committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 31. There has been speculation that he had become despondent, in part, because of an inability to publish his manuscript.
Following her son杏吧专区檚 death, Thelma Toole began a tireless crusade to see the manuscript become a book. After racking up many rejections from publishers, she eventually enlisted the assistance of novelist Walker Percy, who was teaching at Loyola 杏吧专区 in New Orleans.
Percy, who had won the National Book Award for his novel The Moviegoer, was reluctant to read the manuscript initially, according to MacLauchlin.
杏吧专区淗e was a writer, not an editor or a literary agent. He had already convinced himself it would be a shoddy manuscript,杏吧专区 MacLauchlin said.
Percy finally relented and 杏吧专区渂ecame its champion,杏吧专区 MacLauchlin added.
A Confederacy of Dunces was published in 1980 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981.
Photo: Former UL Lafayette professor John Kennedy Toole (seated) is shown with high school friend Cary Laird. The UL Lafayette Foundation has acquired a copy of a manuscript for the author杏吧专区檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A Confederacy of Dunces, which was given to Laird by the writer杏吧专区檚 mother, Thelma Toole.
FROM SOTHEBY'S
杏吧专区婽he "manuscript contains over 140 holograph corrections in blue ink, in either script or careful block printing. Additionally there are numerous earlier corrections in holograph script as photo-copied from an earlier corrected typescript. It is evident that the same hand is at work in both stages of editing. While conventional wisdom is that only a single copy of the original manuscript existed atop Toole's armoire (now famously lost) the nature of some the changes found herein suggest choices only the author would make. For instance on p. 217 of the manuscript, 'Don杏吧专区檛 imagine' (a perfectly acceptable Southern vernacular) becomes the more correct 'I don杏吧专区檛 imagine' which is the final reading in the published novel. More intriguing is the very strong similarity between the hand at work in the present manuscript and Toole杏吧专区檚 hand in the letter sold" also to the UL Lafayette Foundation. (15 June 2012, lot 155).