John Kennedy Toole. Softcover: Very Good+ Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. New York: Grove Press, 1980. No writing or markings in the book, 405 pp. The foreword was written by Walker Percy.
This was Toole's posthumously published first book. The book was published 12 years after the authors death. He was depressed over the fact that he could not get his work published. The title of the book was derived from a Jonathan Swift quote: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” Many who have read the book assume that Ignatius J. Reilly, the main character, is Toole’s comically exaggerated alter ego.
A bit about the author. He was considered a child progidy (a math whiz) starting high school at 12 and finishing at 16. At twenty-two, Toole became the youngest professor in the history of Hunter College. Sadly, he was dead by 31. His book has attained cult-like status over the years since first published more than 40 years ago.
