author
John Kennedy
Best known for the wildly original comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces, this New Orleans writer became famous only after his death, when the book found its audience and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize.
1 Audiobook
The history of steam navigation
by John Kennedy
About the author
Born in New Orleans in 1937, John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist whose work captured the city's humor, oddness, and sharp social observations. He wrote from an early age and is also known for The Neon Bible, a novel he completed as a teenager.
During his lifetime, Toole struggled to get A Confederacy of Dunces published. The novel finally appeared in 1980, more than a decade after his death, helped into print by writer Walker Percy and Toole's mother.
Its success was extraordinary. A Confederacy of Dunces grew from a posthumous publication into a modern classic, and Toole was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. Today, he is remembered for creating one of American literature's most unforgettable comic voices.