Ken and Thelma: The Story of A Confederacy of Dunces

by Joel Fletcher

Overview

"Ken has a real gift for mimicry and a refined sense of the absurd . . . the English faculty . . .both fear and court Ken because of his biting comic talent." --from Joel L. Fletcher's journal

John Kennedy Toole's first published novel, A Confederacy of Dunces , which Walker Percy called a"gargantuan tumultuous human tragi-comedy," became a publishing phenomenon, with almost two million copies in print worldwide in eighteen languages. The book's outrageous protagonist, Ignatius Reilly, is an icon of contemporary American fiction.Now Ken and Thelma sheds new light on the tragic life story of the author, known as 'Ken' to his friends. Drawing on his own journals and personal letters, Joel L. Fletcher recreates his friendship with Ken in the early 1960s and his long association with Ken's indomitable mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole, after the book's publication. Ken and Thelma features personal photographs, many never before published.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455606986
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	01/22/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

A native of Louisiana and a graduate of Tulane, Joel L. Fletcher worked with Toole at what is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He lived abroad in Italy, France, and England, studying and collecting art while teaching and working for the Council on International Educational Exchange and the City University of New York. Fletcher is a fine-art dealer focusing on nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American and European art.