Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1 appearances
-
Edition 1 (1981) Winner
John Kennedy Toole
ジョン・ケネディ・トゥール
Jon Kenedi Tūru
Aliases:
Ken
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1937-12-17 （New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.）
- Died
- 1969-03-26 （Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S.） age 31
- Nationality
- American
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Religion
- Catholic
- Residence History
- New Orleans → New York → Lafayette → San Juan, Puerto Rico
Career
- Occupations
- Novelist, Professor, Soldier
- Active Years
- 1954-1969
- Affiliations
- University of Southwestern Louisiana, Hunter College, Dominican College
- Memberships
- Newman Club
- Influenced By
- Flannery O'Connor, Boethius, John Lyly
- Influenced
- Walker Percy
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulane University | Faculty of English | English Department | BA | 1954-1958 | United States |
| Columbia University | Graduate School of English Literature | English Literature | MA | 1958-1959 | United States |
Tulane University
Faculty of English
/ English Department
Degree:
BA
Period:
1954-1958
Year of Graduation:
1958
Country:
United States
Graduated with honors
Columbia University
Graduate School of English Literature
/ English Literature
Degree:
MA
Period:
1958-1959
Year of Graduation:
1959
Country:
United States
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Pulitzer Prize for Fiction | A Confederacy of Dunces | — | Columbia University | Winner |
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
1981
Work:
A Confederacy of Dunces
Organization:
Columbia University
Result:
Winner
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
A Confederacy of Dunces
1980 Satirical Novel 405 pagesA slothful, obese philosopher Ignatius J. Reilly is forced by his mother to take menial jobs in New Orleans, satirizing society in a comic fugue.
Wheel of FortuneFaith vs. ModernityNew Orleans Eccentrics
Adaptations
- [Theater] A Confederacy of Dunces / David Esbjornson (2015)
The Neon Bible
1989 Southern Gothic 160 pagesA boy in 1940s rural Mississippi struggles under the influence of fundamentalist Baptists and family hardship.
Religious OppressionFamily BreakdownViolence
Adaptations
- [Film] The Neon Bible / Terence Davies (1995)
Bibliography
- A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)
- The Neon Bible (1989)
Adaptations
- A Confederacy of Dunces: Staged in Boston 2015
- The Neon Bible: Film adaptation 1995
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Satirical HumorAccurate New Orleans DialectsComic Fugue
- Recurring Motifs
- Obese ProtagonistsPhilosophical ReferencesMother-Son Dynamics
Health
-
Depression1964-1969Writing ceased, led to suicide
-
Paranoia1967-1969Social withdrawal, persecution delusions
-
Headaches1967-1968Refused neurology consult
Legacy
Posthumous Pulitzer winner. A Confederacy of Dunces sold over 1.5 million copies, classic of Southern literature due to mother's persistence.
Archives
- Tulane University Archives
- Loyola University New Orleans Archives
In Popular Culture
- Ranked 58th in PBS Great American Read
Quotes
-
In 1954, when I was 16, I wrote a book called The Neon Bible, a grim, adolescent, sociological attack upon the hatreds caused by the various Calvinist religions in the South...
Source: Letter to editor (1964)
Trivia
- Mother Thelma badgered Walker Percy into publishing the manuscript
- Protagonist Ignatius modeled partly on himself
- Began Dunces in army office teaching Spanish
- Wrote Neon Bible at 16