"A GREAT SLOB OF A MAN IN VIOLENT REVOLT AGAINST THE ENTIRE 20TH CENTURY": FIRST EDITION OF A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES

TOOLE, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1980. Octavo, original beige cloth, original dust jacket. $7200.

First edition of Toole's posthumously published, Pulitzer Prize-winning satirical novel—"nothing less than a grand comic fugue"—one of only 2500 copies printed, with review slip for The Detroit News.

"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 32. 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" (Anthony Burgess, 99 Novels, 125). "A masterwork of comedy… A pungent work of slapstick, satire and intellectual incongruities …. nothing less than a grand comic fugue" (New York Times). First-state dust jacket, without Chicago Sun-Times blurb on the rear panel. This advance review copy was given by The Detroit News to Charles Larson, one of its literary critics.

A very nearly fine copy.