Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole [Hardcover]

Rene Pol Nevils (Author), Deborah George Hardy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2001

The phenomenal success of John Kennedy Toole’s comic masterpiece, A Confederacy of Dunces, is now legendary, a story that has long beckoned a deeper exploration into the life, imagination, and demise of the writer responsible for one of American literature’s most memorable characters—Ignatius J. Reilly. In Ignatius Rising, René Pol Nevils and Deborah George Hardy present the first biography of Toole, drawing upon scores of interviews with contemporaries of the writer and acquaintances of his influencing mother, Thelma, as well as unpublished letters, documents, and photographs. Frank yet sympathetic, Ignatius Rising deftly describes a life that is dark, tragic, bizarre, and amazing—but luminous with the gift of laughter, a life not unlike those of Toole’s beloved characters, now loved the world over.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

By now, the tale of Toole's sprawling comic novel of New Orleans, A Confederacy of Dunces, lives on as a modern literary legend. A young novelist writes what he thinks is his masterpiece, is rejected by a famous New York publisher, and commits suicide only to be published posthumously and win the Pulitzer. But in this almost hagiographic account, first-time authors Nevils and Hardy reveal a story that is not quite so simple. Raised in New Orleans by a mostly distant and later mentally disturbed father and a clinging mother, Toole developed the love of reading early. When he finished Confederacy, he sent it to Simon and Schuster, where the famous Robert Gottlieb championed the manuscript and encouraged Toole to make some changes so that the book would be more publishable. Toole refused, asked for the manuscript back, and eventually descended into depression and paranoia, blaming Gottlieb for the novel's failure. After his death, his mother urged Walker Percy to publish Confederacy. The rest is history. Here, mother and son seem to have stepped right out of the Southern Gothic of a Tennessee Williams play, but this is a sad tale of one family's descent into despair and lonely ascent into posthumous fame. Recommended for most collections, especially where Confederacy is popular. Henry Carrigan, Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

René Pol Nevils lives in Baton Rouge with her husband, Rick. Deborah George Hardy is a member of the Paris Poetry Workshops and founding director of Littlestarfriends.com. She lives in Pasadena, California. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press; First Edition edition (May 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807126802
• ISBN-13: 978-0807126806
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,484,211 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart of Reilly, June 3, 2001

By 

Dan Ackman (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover)

I still remember the first time I read "Confederacy of Dunces" lying on the bed in my college dorm room, kicking my feet laughing. I have returned to it many times and still consider it the funniest book ever.

So when I saw the biography of J.K. Toole, the author and suicide, in my local bookstore I had to buy it. I did not anticipate, though, being so swept up. The authors do an outstanding job compiling the minute details of Toole's too-short life, which could not have been easy since he was unknown and until well after his death. I was surprised how interested I could be in his grade school years-- although that is in large part owed to my fascination with Toole going in.

The key mystery to me has always been about Toole's relationship with Robert Gottlieb. For an unpublished novelist (indeed he had barely published anything) to gain the attention of perhaps the leading book editor of his genration is incredible. What happened? Why was it not published?

It's hard to fault Gottlieb. His letters-- reproduced over his own initial objoections-- show his committment to the book. On the other hand, his objections to the book-- that it lacked "meaning"-- were, however sincere, maddeningly unhelpful and unspecific, as he admitted.

Thelma Toole is presented as a domineering, overbearing, grandiose nutcase. But her successful effort to finally have the book published shows a great strength. It's actually inspiring.

Toole eventually killed himself after despainring of the book ever being published. This "failure" hardly explains his act-- how many failed authors go on with their lives or write a second book that is published? Suggestions are made about his homosexulaty (closeted) and his finances (bad since he had to support his parents). Neither is enough. But the events leading to the tragedy, the descent into madness, are touchingly detailed.

One mystery remains. Nevils and Hardy, also first time authors, show that Toole was an excellent student, though hardly a world-beater when he ventured beyond New Orleans. They reproduce many of his letters. While the letters are fine, there is not a single inkling of either the prose style, the imagination, or the comedy that is on every page of Toole's novel. Though we are told constantly how funny Toole was in real life, we never see it. Where did the genius in the book spring from, and why was it not eviedent in any of his other work?

A chilling thought occurred to me towards the end of the book. The authors reproduce a letter from Thelma Toole to her lawyer. Shen concludes a trademark harangue: "My nervous system is drained by this harrwoing legal matter." That's Ignatius all over.

Is it possible that Thelma had a hand in the book or was-- even weirder-- it's ghostwriter? It's a bizzare notion and I have not one shred of evidence to back it up. But throughout the biography, Thelma is portrayed as not of the sensibility to even appreciate the book or its humor. Yet she is the one person-- including J.K. Toole-- who had the strength and faith to see the project through.

In the end, I recommend "Ignatius Rising" to anyone who read "Confederacy" and loved it. As to those who read it and did not love it, they lack all sense of taste or decency. As to those who never read the novel, read it first, then read the biography of the tragic author who (probably) created it.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Look at a Tormented Soul, August 29, 2001

By 

debra crosby (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover)

Ever since I read "A Confederacy of Dunces" and heard the legend about how it got published, I have been interested in the character of its author. This biography provides an interesting look at the life of John Kennedy Toole and sheds some light on a complex man whose inner demons finally destroyed his spirit and ultimately, his life. His mother, probably the greatest influence on John, is drawn as vividly as he is, and comes across as a fascinating and maddening woman who nonetheless always believed in her son's work. Their relationship is at the core of John's life as well as his pain. The ultimate tragedy for us readers is that we won't ever see any more of his work. John's tragedy was that he thought no one would ever want to. A well documented character study that is a must read for anyone who is a fan of Toole's masterpiece!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mystery still not solved, May 21, 2005

By 

A reader (Toms River, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole (Hardcover)

I was very glad to find this book, after being haunted for 20 years by an eerie public silence on the life and death of John Kennedy Toole. It seemed strange that someone could produce such a great novel and then take his own life before getting it published and before writing anything else. It seemed incomprehensible that there was no published biographical information about such a person, particularly that there was nothing examining his unfortunate end.

"Ignatius Rising" gave me a lot of incidental details about Toole's life, but no better understanding of why he decided to end it so abruptly. Discovering that he only submitted the manuscript to one publisher raises the new question of why he didn't try again, and some other new but less interesting questions are raised. But I still wonder just as before how much the failure to get his novel published contributed to his decision, and whether sexual and maternal problems were also involved. There was already reason to speculate about all of that, based on the novel itself and on Walker Percy's introduction, and this biography only presented new bases for the same speculations. It didn't reliably confirm or deny any of them. Much of the evidence provided about those questions is suspect, as the authors themselves acknowledge, and even the more reliable evidence is often ambiguous or contradictory. Moreover, some of the conclusions the authors draw are so contrary to the evidence that I have to wonder whether they may have, handicapped by the same misunderstanding, omitted some important material.

For example, on page 162 they present a 1968 interview with Bob Byrne, a close friend of Toole's, in which he says that "...the editor objected to the picture of the New York Jewish girl; they said it was anti-Semitic or something, but she's a typical Hunter (College) girl..."

On the next page Nevils and Hardy discount that notion, saying that Toole "worried that the Jewish firebrand Myrna had become more of 'a cartoon' than the other characters. This concern may have been discussed with Gottlieb in a phone conversation or in some lost correspondence, but there is nothing to show who, if anyone, initiated this subject."

The first sentence is obviously based on Toole's long, grovelling March 1965 letter to editor Robert Gottlieb (page 138) "Myrna turned into a cartoon, in a book where almost everyone else was basically real, ...". It may reflect Toole's genuine feeling, or it may reflect a desire to appear to agree with his editor.

But the second sentence is simply wrong. In a December 1964 letter Gottlieb had written (page 131) "... What we think is this. That you are wildly funny often, funnier than almost anyone around, and our kind of funny. That many of the characters are wonderful -- Burma, Santa, Irene, Mancuso, Lana Lee, and others (Miss Trixie too). That certain things don't work: Myrna in particular. ..."

That settles the question of who initiated the subject, and since Myrna is no more cartoonish than Miss Trixie or any of the other characters Gottlieb named, and no more offensive an ethnic stereotype than Burma or Santa, it's quite possible that Toole correctly understood Gottlieb's bias, kowtowed to it in his March letter, and later reported it accurately to Byrne.

In the same letter to Gottlieb, Toole also apologizes for the Levys, who were the only other characters Gottlieb had objected to in his December letter ("That the Levys are not so hot.")

In the March letter, Toole also reaches pathetically for opportunities to praise Jewish artists -- novelist Bruce Jay Friedman, creator of comical and stereotypical Jewish characters; and radio/TV stars Goodman and Jane Ace (Aiskowitz), who he says, absurdly, may have been a "hazy" model for the Levys. When combined with the grovelling apology for all three Jewish characters Gottlieb had criticized, that suggests that Toole may have been trying furtively to assure Gottlieb that he was not anti-Semitic.