A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole

Description

Here’s the sweet spot for A Confederacy of Dunces: an honest-to-God 1980 LSU Press copy without the price tag attached to the scarce first printing. This is the fifth printing, still issued in the book’s original year, with Walker Percy’s foreword and the great original Ignatius J. Reilly jacket design. The rear jacket is the later state, carrying the Chicago Sun-Times notice along with praise from Percy, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist. The true first printing was just 2,500 copies, and collectors now pay thousands for nice examples; early subsequent printings have consequently developed a following of their own.

The story behind the book is almost as remarkable as Ignatius himself. Toole wrote the novel in the 1960s but died in 1969, never seeing it published. His mother, Thelma Toole, eventually persuaded Walker Percy to read the manuscript; Percy championed it, LSU Press published it in 1980, and A Confederacy of Dunces won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. LSU Press says the novel has never gone out of print.

For the collector who wants an early Confederacy of Dunces without spending four figures—or considerably more—this 1980 fifth printing is exactly the kind of copy to buy.

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