|
John Kennedy Toole (; December 17, 1937 – March 26, 1969) was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana, whose posthumously published novel ''A Confederacy of Dunces'' won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He also wrote ''The Neon Bible''. Although several people in the literary world felt his writing skills were praiseworthy, Toole's novels were rejected during his lifetime. After suffering from paranoia and depression due in part to these failures, he committed suicide at the age of 31. Toole was born to a middle-class family in New Orleans. From a young age, his mother taught him an appreciation of culture. She was thoroughly involved in his affairs for most of his life, and at times they had a difficult relationship. With his mother's encouragement, Toole became a stage performer at the age of 10 doing comic impressions and acting. At 16 he wrote his first novel, ''The Neon Bible'', which he later dismissed as "adolescent".〔 Toole received an academic scholarship to Tulane University. After graduating from Tulane, he studied English at Columbia University in New York while teaching simultaneously at Hunter College. He also taught at various Louisiana colleges, and during his early career as an academic he was valued on the faculty party circuit for his wit and gift for mimicry. His studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the army, where he taught English to Spanish-speaking recruits in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After receiving a promotion, he used his private office to begin writing ''A Confederacy of Dunces'', which he finished at his parents' home after his discharge. ''Dunces'' is a picaresque novel featuring the misadventures of protagonist Ignatius J. Reilly, a lazy, obese, misanthropic, self-styled scholar who lives at home with his mother. It is hailed for its accurate depictions of New Orleans dialects. Toole based Reilly in part on his college professor friend Bob Byrne. Byrne's slovenly, eccentric behavior was anything but professorial, and Reilly mirrored him in these respects. The character was also based on Toole himself, and several personal experiences served as inspiration for passages in the novel. While at Tulane, Toole filled in for a friend at a job as a hot tamale cart vendor, and worked at a family owned and operated clothing factory. Both of these experiences were later adopted into his fiction. Toole submitted ''Dunces'' to publisher Simon & Schuster, where it reached noted editor Robert Gottlieb. Gottlieb considered Toole talented but felt his comic novel was essentially pointless. Despite several revisions, Gottlieb remained unsatisfied, and after the book was rejected by another literary figure, Hodding Carter Jr., he shelved the novel. Suffering from depression and feelings of persecution, Toole left home on a journey around the country. He stopped in Biloxi, Mississippi to end his life by running a garden hose in from the exhaust of his car to the cabin. Some years later, his mother brought the manuscript of ''Dunces'' to the attention of novelist Walker Percy, who ushered the book into print. In 1981, Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. ==Early life== Toole was born to John Dewey Toole, Jr. and Thelma Ducoing Toole. Kennedy was the name of Thelma's grandmother.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 5〕 The first of the Creole Ducoing family arrived in Louisiana from France in the early 19th century, and the Tooles immigrated to America from Ireland during the potato famine of the 1840s.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 6〕〔Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 7–8〕 Toole's father worked as a car salesman, and his mother, forced to give up her teaching job when she married (as was the custom), gave private lessons in music, speech, and dramatic expression.〔Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 12–3〕〔Fletcher. pg. 64〕 Toole was known to friends and family as "Ken" until the final few months of his life, when he insisted on being called John.〔 As a child, Toole had an intense affection for his black nursemaid Beulah Matthews, who cared for him when his parents were both working.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 18〕 Toole's highly cultured mother was a controlling woman, especially with her son. His father was less involved and sometimes complained of his lack of influence in their child's upbringing.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 27〕 Despite this, he and his father bonded through a mutual interest in baseball and cars.〔Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 27–8〕 Toole's mother chose the friends he could associate with, and felt his cousins on his father's side were too common for him to be around.〔Fletcher. pg. 73〕 Toole received high marks in elementary school, and from a young age expressed a desire to excel academically.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 22〕〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 24〕 He skipped ahead a grade, from first to second, after taking an IQ test at the age of six.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 25〕 When Toole was ten, his mother gathered a group of child stage entertainers she named the Junior Variety Performers. The troupe, with Toole as its star, consisted of 50 children of varying skills and ages.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 28〕 It was well-received, and he also engaged in other entertainment ventures, such as playing the lead in three productions of the Children's Workshop Theatre of New Orleans, MCing a radio show called ''Telekids'', modeling for newspaper ads, and developing a solo show of comic impersonations entitled ''Great Lovers of the World''.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 29〕〔Fletcher. pg. 54〕 Although an excellent student, Toole curtailed his stage work when he entered high school (Alcée Fortier High), to concentrate on his academic work.〔Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 29–30〕 He wrote for the school newspaper ''Silver and Blue'', worked on the yearbook ''The Tarpon'', and won several essay contests on subjects such as the Louisiana Purchase and the American Merchant Marine.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 32〕 He took up debating, a skill his father had used to win the state debate championship when he was in high school.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 10〕 Toole spoke at gatherings of civic organizations such as Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs.〔 Toole's father bought him an Oldsmobile, in which Toole was delivering newspapers at the age of 13, even though the legal driving age was 15.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 34〕 In high school, Toole spent a lot of time at the home of classmate Larry McGee, and dated McGee's sister, Jane. Jane later said that Toole never wanted to go home and would purposely spend almost all of his free time at the McGees'.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 37〕 With the McGees, Toole would engage in mischievous pranks and go on double dates with Larry and his girlfriend, Buzz. The couples often spent their free time at the local pool, or cruising around in Toole's car.〔Nevils and Hardy. pgs. 34–7〕 As a teenager in 1954, Toole made his first trip out of Louisiana to Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C. on a field trip. He especially enjoyed New York and filled a cherished scrapbook with pictures from his visit (which included trips on the New York City Subway System, an excursion on a boat in the New York Harbor, visits to the Statue of Liberty, Chinatown, Times Square) and with the program from a performance of The Rockettes he had seen.〔Fletcher. pg. 24–5〕 Toole became the editor of the news section of the school newspaper, and maintained high marks throughout high school.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 38〕〔 He received many accolades, including winning a National Merit Scholarship, selection to the National Honor Society, and being named the Most Intelligent Senior Boy by the student body.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 40〕 He was one of two New Orleanians voted outstanding citizen at the Pelican (now Louisiana) Boys State convention and he was invited back to serve the following year as a counsellor.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 38〕 He also took part in the Newman Club, a Catholic organization for teenagers, where he won an award for outstanding student in the group.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 38〕 He received a full scholarship to Tulane University at 17.〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 41〕 During his senior year, Toole wrote ''The Neon Bible'', a short novel of Southern Gothic Fiction that has been compared in style to Flannery O'Connor, a favorite author of Toole's.〔 The book's protagonist, a boy named David, had once lived with his family in a "little white house in town that had a real roof you could sleep under when it rained,"〔Kakutani, Michiko. (Books of The Times; A Novelist's Story of Love, Pain and (Neon) Signs of Life ), ''The New York Times'', May 12, 1989, accessed September 24, 2010.〕 before his father lost his job forcing them into a small shoddily built home.〔〔('Neon Bible' the powerful voice of writer who died far too young ), ''Deseret News'', June 4, 1989, accessed October 8, 2010.〕 Set in 1940s Mississippi, the backwoods Baptist community setting is similar to a location where Toole had once traveled to with a high school friend for a literary contest.〔Fletcher. pg. 159〕 The novel's sudden outburst of violence at the end has been described as incongruous with what has preceded it.〔 Toole later described the novel during correspondence with an editor, "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—and the fundamentalist mentality is one of the roots of what was happening in Alabama, etc. The book, of course, was bad, but I sent it off a couple of times anyway."〔Nevils and Hardy. pg. 143〕 It failed to attract interest from publishers and was not released until after Toole's death. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Kennedy Toole」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|