Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces [Hardcover]

Cory MacLauchlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2012

The saga of John Kennedy Toole is one of the greatest stories of American literary history. After writing A Confederacy of Dunces, Toole corresponded with Robert Gottlieb of Simon & Schuster for two years. Exhausted from Gottlieb’s suggested revisions, Toole declared the publication of the manuscript hopeless and stored it in a box. Years later he suffered a mental breakdown, took a two-month journey across the United States, and finally committed suicide on an inconspicuous road outside of Biloxi. Following the funeral, Toole’s mother discovered the manuscript. After many rejections, she cornered Walker Percy, who found it a brilliant novel and spearheaded its publication. In 1981, twelve years after the author’s death, A Confederacy of Dunces won the Pulitzer Prize.

In Butterfly in the Typewriter, Cory MacLauchlin draws on scores of new interviews with friends, family, and colleagues as well as full access to the extensive Toole archive at Tulane University, capturing his upbringing in New Orleans, his years in New York City, his frenzy of writing in Puerto Rico, his return to his beloved city, and his descent into paranoia and depression.

 

Editorial Reviews

Review

PW’s Best Summer Reads 2012, 6/8/12

Kirkus Reviews, 3/15/12
“[MacLauchlin] cleanly lays out the brief life of his subject and his work’s unlikely afterlife…A valuable biography”

BookPage, April Issue

“[A] highly readable biography…It does an impressive job filling in the gaps and helping readers better understand this complex writer.”

 

Yahoo! Shine, 3/18/12
“Author Cory MacLauchlin provides a well-documented, highly objective, step-by-step track of Toole's too-short life.”

 

San Diego Union Tribune, 3/30/12
“A complete telling of the sad but triumphant story…The life that unfolds here is full of contrasts: laughter and pain, popularity and isolation, failure and success.”

 

LitReactor.com, 4/11

“In addition to being the most comprehensive and accurate biography about the man so far, it's also a gripping read”
 

Blurt-Online, 4/19/12
“An impressive new biography…MacLauchlin makes Toole come alive by providing illuminating glimpses into his life and clearing up much of the fog surrounding his death.”

 

Publishers Weekly, 4/23/12
“[A] thoughtful and thorough biography…MacLauchlin does an admirable job distinguishing facts from speculation.”

 

New City, 5/1/12

“Butterfly in the Typewriter is as close to unraveling the enigma of the often-mysterious John Kennedy Toole as we are ever likely to read, and his story makes for an engrossing read.”

 

Shepherd Express, 5/2/12
“A fascinating account of Toole's short, intense life…For anyone carrying more than a passing interest in A Confederacy of Dunces, this bio is, of course, a must-read.”

 

Cleveland Plain Dealer, 5/11/12

“For anybody who has faced rejection (and who hasn’t?), this book contains a lifetime worth of wisdom.”

 

Buffalo News, 5/6/12
“This is a sad story well-told”

 

Deep South Magazine,6/1/12

“MacLauchlin has created a book that is literary, erudite and accessible all at the same time. He has married scholarship with storytelling, which is not an easy feat.”

 

Atlanta Journal Constitution, 5/29/12

“Cory MacLauchlin’s fair-minded biography unpacks one myth at a time…Along with its portrait of a complicated, conflicted and flawed young writer, Butterfly in the Typewriter provides a comprehensive look at Toole’s childhood, college years, his army posting in Puerto Rico and his lifelong love affair with New Orleans.”

 

Winnipeg Free Press, 5/27/12

“A balanced and sensitive biography of Toole, is very much the stuff of movies”

Washington Times, 6/8/12

“[An] exhaustive biography…Required reading for anyone interested in this enigmatic literary figure; indeed, in Southern literature in general.”

VanityFair.com, 7/25/12

“It’s an exhaustively researched chronicle of the remarkable life of John Kennedy O’Toole…MacLauchlin’s story…is heartbreaking…I implore you to read the novel and A Butterfly in the Typewriter now, to meet the man and Ignatius yourself before it’s too late.”

Library Journal, 8/03/12

“The reader experiences the life and death of Toole, as well as the amazing journey that the manuscript of A Confederacy of Dunces took long after its author was gone….[MacLauchlin] shows a connection to and understanding of Toole that translates to readers, making them feel as if they, too, have entered Toole’s mind and are with him through his ups and downs…MacLauchlin has a deep understanding of Toole without making any unfounded assumptions…Recommended to all literary biography collections and necessary for all those studying the prominent cultural figures of New Orleans.”

The Advocate, 8/14/12

“MacLauchlin does this tragic story justice, producing a gripping biography worth reading."

VanityFair.com, 7/25/12
“It’s an exhaustively researched chronicle of the remarkable life of John Kennedy O’Toole…MacLauchlin’s story…is heartbreaking…I implore you to read the novel and A Butterfly in the Typewriter now, to meet the man and Ignatius yourself before it’s too late.”

About the Author

Cory MacLauchlin is a producer, biographer, and member of the English Faculty at Germanna Community College. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife and son.

 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1ST edition (March 27, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306820404
• ISBN-13: 978-0306820403
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.2 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cory MacLauchlin was born and raised in Newport News, Virginia. He earned his Master of Arts in English from University of Virginia.

He has traveled all over the world, but New Orleans remains his favorite place on earth. After witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina he dedicated himself to uplifting the importance of one of the most culturally significant cities in the U.S. He developed a course on New Orleans history and culture at Christopher Newport University and he has led several student groups to help rebuilding efforts in the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

Currently a member of the English Faculty at Germanna Community College, he teaches courses on American Literature, Southern Literature and Writing and Research. With a belief in the ability of writing to rehabilitate lives, he offers writing and literature courses at a nearby state prison. Currently, he teaches a course on the literature of confinement there.

MacLauchlin has published on topics in American and British literature, ranging from Mark Twain to the intricate history of The Hummums, a centuries old literary institution of London. As producer and biographer, he is featured in the documentary film John Kennedy Toole: The Omega Point.

He lives in Virginia with his wife and sons.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive biography of Toole April 4, 2012

By Herbert V. Leighton

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is the definitive biography of Ken Toole. On what basis do I make this claim? I have studied John Kennedy Toole and his novel A Confederacy of Dunces for five years, and I have published two peer-review journal articles on his work. I have studied his papers thoroughly and have read all previously published biographies and memoirs about him. Therefore, I am confident in this statement. I have learned a great deal from this book, my previous efforts notwithstanding. MacLauchlin has laboriously tracked down those who knew Ken Toole and has given them a voice. And I have asked around: he did not misuse his sources as Nevils and Hardy apparently did in their eariler biography.

If I had to complain, I would point out that the first couple of chapters have too much purple prose. But then, Confederacy itself doesn't win you over immediately, either. Once he gets going, MacLauchlin's style makes for a pleasant and informative read.

To review the contents:

It begins with Toole's boyhood. MacLauchlin found a boyhood friend of Toole's to describe some of his experiences and his personality at that time. There is a little of the unfortunate "He must have ... " that plagues biographies, but not too much. The Toole family had to move from more prestigious neighborhoods to less prestigious ones as their fortunes declined. Ken Toole's father was eccentric even in Ken's boyhood.

Ken's teen and college years: There is a bibliography that was produced after Toole's death of the books in his library, and MacLauchlin read through all of those books. He also interviewed professors and fellow students from Tulane and Columbia about the courses that Toole took and his experience with them. MacLauchlin clearly did his homework. He also lays out the timeline clearly. Without a clear timeline, it is difficult for the student of Toole to realize that there were two periods when Ken was in New York attending Columbia, not one. MacLauchlin has interviewed various women who dated Toole. He researched what was going on in New York when Toole was there. He was able to ascertain when Toole was doing most of his studying, and when he seemed to drift away from the studies into creative writing.

Ken's army years: In Ron Bell's Ph.D. dissertation on Toole, he focused on the parts of Toole's letters from Puerto Rico that were bigoted and mean-spirited, claiming that Toole was therefore a nihilist. MacLauchlin compares his letters with the events in his life at that time, giving a more complete picture of Toole's Puerto Rican experience. MacLauchlin may be white-washing, but I believe he does a better job of contextualizing the mood of the letters. Toole went through dark periods during his stint in the army.

Ken's correspondence with Simon and Schuster: Again, this book does a better job than others giving a clear timeline of the events surrounding Toole's attempts to publish Confederacy. MacLauchlin has interviewed more people involved, including George Deaux, who was a New Orleans writer from the same period who did get published at Simon and Schuster. In Ken Toole's final decline into madness, he was convinced that Deaux stole the plot of Confederacy for one of his novels. MacLauchlin does a nice job comparing Confederacy to the Deaux novel Superworm, which is probably the one that Toole imagined was a rip-off of Confederacy. MacLauchlin shows the similarities, but also the critical differences.

In describing Toole's final days, MacLauchlin corrects some errors in earlier accounts. There is no solid evidence that Toole visited Flannery O'Connor's house in Milledgeville, GA, on his final trip. Also, Hurricane Camille destroyed the papers that were in Toole's car at the time of his suicide. These two facts I had either never learned or had forgotten from previous biographies.

In Chapter 12, "Final Journey," MacLauchlin confronts directly Nevils and Hardy's weak evidence and speculation about the possibility that Toole was a closeted gay or that he suffered from alcoholism. The bottom line: there is no clear evidence for either one, though there is no clear evidence refuting either one.

An interesting detail is found in Chapter 13. In Walker Percy's original Forward to Confederacy, the most obvious interpretation of his story is that he read the novel right after getting it from Thelma, but he doesn't actually say so. In the Nevils and Hardy book, they seem to dramatize what they think happened with the Percys, but they do not cite sources. In their version, Walker reads it first, then he asks his wife Bunt to read it. MacLauchlin, on the other hand, tells a very different story, one in which Bunt reads the book first. It is only after she approves it that Walker starts reading. And MacLauchlin's reference is an interview he conducted with Bunt Percy herself. Again, this underlines why this is the definitive biography.

In the final chapters, there are no great surprises in comparison to other books about Toole. However, MacLauchlin does review literary scholarship on Toole, including citing one of my own papers. He makes the case that Toole's accomplishment genuinely transcends his circumstances and becomes timeless without ignoring the flaws of Confederacy. He also offers his own interpretive insights on the novel.

To find my own site, search google for "John Kennedy Toole Research." As of April, 2012, it is the first hit.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Novel-like biography of a misunderstood novelist April 5, 2012

By Ben Anderson

Format:Hardcover

Having just read Butterfly cover-to-cover, I can attest to its greatness. MacLauchlin carefully dissects each aspect of the sensationalism that has largely defined our understanding of Toole, resulting in both a thoroughly researched and more humanistic portrait. At the same time, MacLauchlin anchors much of the narrative with Confederacy providing a much-needed and appropriate central theme for a biography of a man ever-inspired by the wealth of characters around him. MacLauchlin's passion for writing, Toole, and New Orleans come together beautifully here to create a biography that reads more like a novel - Toole newcomers and scholars alike will likely re-discover Toole through Butterfly and find it hard to put down!

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The price paid (and rewards earned) by a smart, defiant misfit April 20, 2012

By John L Murphy TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

As an admirer of "Confederacy" when it appeared (in mass-market Grove paperback for me), the little I found that was marketed back then about John Kennedy Toole tended towards the tortured artist. Walker Percy's promotion of his fellow Southern Catholic (if, being obviously of Irish descent, cradle and not convert) helped launch Toole's novel as if he was a creation as odd as Ignatius Reilly, his memorably offensive and irascibly brilliant protagonist. Toole's suicide in 1969 at 31, and the long delay before the novel was championed and won the Pulitzer in 1981, became associated with Toole's failure to get his novel published.

Cory MacLauchlin corrects this misattribution. He separates the novel's fate in publishing from that of its author three years later. He handles the coverage of Toole in the "popular media" and places it against the legacy that his mother took on of protecting her son's reputation. He notes the sympathy of the critics who found in Toole's tragedy a ready myth. He removes blame from Simon and Schuster editor Robert Gottlieb; he does not speculate as many have about Toole's alleged homosexuality. Necessarily, he patiently delves into the mental illness which perhaps, left undiagnosed, hastened Toole's inability to cope. Faced with his demanding mother Thelma and his namesake father's own decline, Toole could not endure the future. He came back from Puerto Rico where he had taught Army draftees. The freedom he had in New York City during grad school, in traveling, in teaching, was contrasted with his family and his responsibility. He looked at his parents; he left after his Christmas break from teaching. The road trip through the South appears mysterious. But, two months later as Mardi Gras came and went, apparently on the way back towards New Orleans, he ended his life.

As a fellow English instructor at a perhaps less-heralded institution (as am I), MacLauchlin finds a match in Toole. Those of us who teach others how to read and write better in modest classrooms understand the challenges and the satire inherent in these daily duties. (As an aside, it shows how talented Toole was--without finishing a Ph.D. at Columbia, he was offered a professorship, at 22, at Hunter College.) The correspondence and the mimicry about his earnest or hapless peers recall Flannery O'Connor (even if he did not enter her house alas, on his last journey, contrary to rumor); the academic send-ups of his medievalist colleague Bobby Byrne who teaches Boethius to every class, even frosh comp, certainly shows how Toole found ready humor and a model for Byrne and his New Orleans misfits who populated his fiction, his work, and his leisure in his hometown.

Toole could be cruel; MacLauchlin quotes, for instance, from a letter to his parents insulting two "haystacks": the "gray-white, sandy, freckled, powdery" skins and awful dinner from the skeletal, "appalling" parents of his fellow instructor. MacLauchlin notes how sustaining Ignatius Reilly took a tool on the novelist. His own arrogance as he balanced Army life and teaching with investing so much energy into what became far too late a cult novel demonstrates the uneasy relationships he had with others, male and female, and the frustrations with modern life endured by him and his colleagues and creations.

The biographer takes the novelist on his own terms. Drawn from five years of archival research and enhanced by many photos, this merges a straightforward account of his restless life with his swerves between confidence and despair. As a "self-marginalized intellectual," Toole seems to have inherited some of his parents' ambition (his father for school, his mother for the stage) along with the thwarting of early promise. Raised the off-beat New Orleans scene, Tulane, boho and Beats-era New York, and Army life in Puerto Rico shaped him. The novel he started in 1963 drew his friends and experiences into his fiction. Inextricably, its fate overshadowed his own journey, paranoia grew, and he silenced his suffering on a back road, at the end of March 1969, outside Biloxi.

MacLauchlin tells the story efficiently, if at times with his own overly effusive prose championing his subject. After all, the absurd and caricatured in Toole's vision about a fat man in his native city obsessed with the decline of humanity since the Middle Ages lends itself to its own eccentricity. That inventive quirk is why we remember Toole and his preening, overbearing, and defiantly literate creations today.