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, I Anatomy of a Pulitzer Prize

The remarkable story of a mother's relentless drive to get recognition for her dead son - and for herself

By Karen Kane Photos by Larry Reese

hen Thelma Du­ coing Toole died in August, she W had already passed into lit­ erary lore for her unprecedented role in bulldozing into print a novel that was to win the Pulitzer Prize. She got A Confederacy of Dunces published 11 years after the author - her son, John Kennedy Toole - had committed suicide. The story of the woman is no less remarkable than the book it­ self. Robert Holditch, who was to be­ come a close friend of Mrs. Toole's, remembers: "I was in Walker Per­ cy's writing class at Loyola Univer­ sity, and he told us about this old woman bringing in a battered, dog­ eared manuscript. She wanted him to have it published. She told him that it wasn't just a manuscript but a masterpiece. She said, 'See if you don't agree with me when you read it',, Walker Percy read it, as he says in his foreword to the book, "with a prickle of interest, then a growing excitement and finally an incredulity: Surely it was not possi­ ble that it was so good." Thelma Toole had found the

Karen Kane and Larry Reese are members of the Chronicle staff.

Page 10 - TEXAS, Houston Chronicle Magazine, December 2, 1914 Thelma Toole devoted a room in the house she shared with her brother to her son 's Thelma Toole's son, John Kennedy Toole. memory. Naturally, she saw herself as part of it.

After publication of her son's novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, often entertaining her guests with her singing. The former voice Thelma Toole enjoyed a steady parade of visitors to her home, and elocution teacher accompanied herself on the piano. .

I r Page 12 - TEXAS, Hau1ton Chronicle Magazine, December 2, 1914 champion for her cause - to get A Confeder­ favor. "Her ego knew no bounds." 2 and reciting poetry at 3. I wished he were acy of Dunces published. The cause had given Thelma Toole told reporters she was filled allowed to come more often. They were very her a reason for living. The cause had helped with a "transcendent feeling of literary glory" isolated. They didn't see anyone. In Thelma's her to block out the consuming sorrow she felt when the book won the Pulitzer Prize. But, she mind, no one was good enough for Ken. Her upon Ken's death. The cause was a way for her added, "I'm heartbroken he isn't here." ego was unbelievable. Reality for Ken was to achieve through her son's work the fame That was just the beginning. what she wanted him to see. Ken confided in she had sought all her life. "She went anywhere to publicize the my uncle, who became quite concerned about Burying Ken was like burying all of her book," recalls Holditch. That didn't mean that his mental state a couple of years before he dreams - until she discovered the copy of she sat quietly at a desk and signed auto­ died. My uncle talked to Ken's parents. But Dunces where Ken had left it on the armoire. graphs. Thelma Toole gave performances. Thelma wouldn't hear of it. She blocked out Ken wrote the novel while he was in the Her brother, Arthur Ducoing, 85, with things like that." Army, stationed at Fort Buchanan in Puerto whom she lived until her death, recalls the Hosli's relationship with her aunt deterio­ Rico. Upon returning to New Orleans he sent steady procession of visitors to their modest rated after the publication of Dunces. Ken the manuscript to a New York publishing cottage on Elysian Fields in New Orleans. Toole had died without a will, and because of house. He worked with one of its editors on "People from all over the world came to Louisiana's Napoleonic Code a portion of his revisions over the course of two years. In the visit her," he says. She reminisced about the estate, including the rights to his works, end, the novel was rejected, and Ken had put it difficulties she encountered in getting the book passed on to John Toole's heirs, Hosli among aside. published, told stories about her son and sang them. Her rediscovery of the manuscript was a songs, accompanying herseU on the piano. The Toole heirs relinquished their rights to psychological resurrection for Thelma Toole. With the readings, Thelma Toole became a Dunces. "I didn't like the novel because it hit Ken could not really be dead if hope that his New Orleans celebrity. At bookstores, clubs too close to home," said Hosli. "I recognized work could be published was still alive. and colleges, she gave readings of A Confeder­ many of our relatives. But I saw the merit in Thelma embarked on her mission with zeal. acy of Dunces. But reading was only a small it. Ken was a lovely man and I was glad for She sent it to many publishers, telling them part of it. him. I had no trouble signing off. I didn't want what she was later to tell Percy, that it was a to share in Ken's glory or the money. It was masterpiece. No one agreed until Percy had Ken's. I didn't do anything to deserve it." read it. Somehow things got twisted in Thelma During the decade of her search, Thelma The Pulitzer Prize Toole's mind, Hosli says. Thelma seemed to met rejection. Each was a little harder to think the Toole heirs wanted to share her take, her brother remembers. Time seemed to filled her with a limelight. "Thelma maligned my family in be running out on her. She had been in ill . public. I have the letters she wrote about us. health. But the cause had kept her alive. They were unbelievable. Walker Percy was almost her last hope, or 'transcendent feeling "Thelma was a talented person who was so the story goes. Thelma had sent the manu­ very frustrated. She believed she hadn't been script to every publisher she knew, never wa­ of literary glory' given a window for her life. It all boils down to vering in her belief that it was the work of a her ego. It was not a completely selfless act to genius who happened to be her son. get Ken's book published. And the proof was in With Percy's august prestige behind "Thelma didn't just speak, she was always the pudding. She wanted to be in the spotlight Dunces, it was finally published, not by his very dramatic and theatrical," recalls Peter herseU, sometimes to the point of the ridicu­ New York pubiisher, but by Louisiana State Jaeger, dean of the doctoral program at lous," she concluded.· University Press. When A Confederacy of Southeastern University, where Mrs. Toole re­ "John Kennedy Toole didn't win the Pulit­ Dunces won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in ceived an honorary doctorate degree in 1982. zer; Thelma Toole did," ventures attorney 1981, the book had become a phenomenon. . She usually began with a few songs on the Brian Begue, who represents the plaintiffs in a The phenomenon did more than make an piano, such as Youre the Only Star in My Blue suit against Mrs. Toole's heirs to force publi­ rE old woman happy and secure. It vindicated Heaven or Baby/ace. She recited poetry, some cation of Ken's first novel, Neon Bible. "The th her belief in her son's talent; it assuaged her of it her own. "She had a great gift for mim­ real story is Thelma Toole. I think the book pl grief (and perhaps guilt) for his death. But icking," recalls Holditch. "She had memorized won the award because of her struggle of 11 th more important, the glow of publicity and suc­ long passages of Dunces. She'd do a Lana Lee years. She overcame enormous obstacles and cess gave Thelma Toole the stage she herseU or a Miss Trixie or an Irene Riley monologue. got the book published." to had been seeking all her life. She was wonderful." The literary world praised her courage in wi Some might have thought that Thelma, Marion Toole Hosli was one of Thelma pursuing the publication of A Confederacy of Co near 80, would be too old for the limelight. But Toole's students in elocution, voice, piano and Dunces. "The success of the book proves that la1 not Thelma; she reveled in it. dance. Mrs. Toole took great interest in her she was right," says her attorney, John Hantel. pn "She never wore hats and white gloves and niece. ''This was before Ken was born," Hosli A Confederacy of Dunces has sold 75,000 hard bedroom slippers before," recalls Marion says. "I have fond memories of those days. She cover (including book club editions) ·and re1 Toole Hosli, her niece. To some, her appetite put pressure on me but no more than I could 750,000 paperback copies. for for attention seemed insatiable. Friends and handle. As I grew older I became more appre­ Indeed Thelma Toole was the story of both g()( acquaintances told of prolonged perfor­ ciative of the things she did for me. She taught the publication of the book and her son's life. thi1 mances. me to enjoy the finer things in life." As her brother, Arthur, explains the suc­ dut "And you were expected to pay rapt atten­ Hosli's memories of her cousin are cess of his nephew's book, "It was all that the tion to her no matter how long these mara­ sketchy. "She didn't let Ken visit at our home knowledge that she put into him." thons went on," recalls Rhoda Faust, who was much. When he did he was expected to per­ She was quoted as telling visitors that her to I a friend of Mrs. Toole's and later fell out of form, like reading the newspaper at the age of infant son, only a few hours old, demonstrated

TIX.AS, Houtt- Chronlclo Magazine, Docombor 2, 1914 - Pago 13

----..- -,~ ....,.. ., ,,,... -rage:;it :- genius. "They didn't know he was a genius," "I remember telling her that while I was University of Southwestern Louisiana. "She she said later, "but I sensed something radi­ in New York City, I planned to see an opera," thoroughly enjoyed being on stage. In fact, I cally different." She would provide this special says Hold.itch. "It was a lesser-known Verdi think she upstaged Coles." child with what she deemed he most needed, work, and I couldn't remember the name. And Thelma's celebration of the success of "a panorama of culture." Thelma started singing something. It turned Dunces allowed her to mask a dark chapter in Thelma herself had pursued "culture" with out to be one of the arias." her life, her son's two-month disappearance a passion. "She was a graduate of oratory Hold.itch met Mrs. Toole after favorably and subsequent suicide. school," her elder brother remembers proudly. reviewing an excerpt of A Confederacy of Ken's teaching days at Southwestern were "She was very intelligent and well-read." Dunces which appeared in a journal before generally happy ones. The husband and wife Thelma was a teacher of elocution and publication. "She called to thank me and we faculty members, Milton and Pat Rickles, theatrics. John Hantel, later her attorney, was became friends," he says. "I saw her a couple were two of his closest friends there. He went also a former student. He says: "Thelma Toole of times a week and talked to her on the phone to all the parties. The Rickles met Ken's par­ did a great work for me and other children almost every day. When she was feeling good ents when they visited Ken. They observed the over the years, teaching us proper speech and she would call me up to tell me something gathering storm of Ken's depression. Ken was elocution. She enlarged our cultural horizons. I funny or to tell a story." drafted while teaching at Southwestern. It was remember her taking us to see a Victor Her­ Everyone remembered Mrs. Toole's sheer during his stint in the Army that he wrote bert play, Naughty Marietta." Hantel took les­ pleasure in her own performance. . Dunces. The Rickles knew nothing about the sons for four years, starting in sixth grade. "I remember she was here with Robert novel. Ken Toole was one of his elementary school Coles, the Harvard psychiatrist and Pulitzer "It was a complete personality transfor­ classmates. Prize-winning author, for a reading of A Con­ mation," Rickles says. "He was always in­ Mrs. Toole often surprised friends with her federacy of Dunces," says Milton Rickles, a tense, but at the end he became very gloomy. range of knowledge. close friend of Ken's and a professor at the He felt ill-used." They later assumed that his failure to get his book published was part of that. Ken's friends did not see a way to inter­ vene or change the course of events. "Ken felt very responsible for his parents, who were elderly even then," says Rickles. "Ken was in a corner, and he felt it with more intensity than someone less sensitive. For most of us, it would have been like water off a duck's back." But not for Ken. helma Toole would probably say that she had never placed expec­ T tations upon her son. Whatever he did pleased her, she told him . reassuringly. At least that's the way she recalled it for others. But certainly Ken knew he was the light of her life. She didn't expect great things for him but rather knew he would do these great things, an im­ plicit faith in his talent. And there he found himself at 32, unpublished and without a doc­ torate. (After all, he never intended to be a teacher. He was going to be a great novelist.) His father was in ill health, and his parents, while not penniless, were less than comfort­ able. A great novel would have changed that. When Ken disappeared his mother searched for him frantically. "She thought he was staying with us and we just weren't tell­ ing her," says Rickles. "We assured her he wasn't. She called us two or three times." The Rickles were saddened to learn of Ken's suicide. News of the publication of Ken's book a decade later pleased them. "I didn't think anyone who lived outside of New Orle­ ans would read Confederacy of Dunces," said Rickles. "It's so regional, it's like gumbo. I went through the book, marking the familiar phrases. That was like Ken, he made fun of all of his friends.."

Continued on page 24

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A few became her clos­ filed a suit a week before Mrs. Toole died est friends. Jaeger, the Southeastern to force publication of the book. dean, met Thelma at one of her book­ Mrs. Toole's will prohibits the publi­ store performances. cation of Neon Bible. Holditch, one of the "I was fascinated by her," he says. five heirs, was named custodian of the "We were introduced and became fast manuscript. and immediate friends. She was very ar­ Mrs. Toole owned half the rights to ticulate. She had every intention of writ­ her son's manuscript. Whether the other ing something herself. I believe she heirs can force publication is not yet de­ would have achieved greatness on her cided. Holditch says: "If they press the own talent. But her age was against her. suit, I feel morally bOund to fight it." I urged her to put her stories on tape. Thelma Toole left half of her estate, Like many older persons, though, she including royalties for Dunces, to fund a was afraid of the tape recorder." scholarship at Tulane University for Holditch gave parties at his house "brilliant and needy authors and play­ "'STOf' IN TODAY AND SB THf DU.MATIC DIFRUMCE M61R01t$ MAKI!'' with Thelma. Naturally, she performed. wrights." The remaining portion was di­ "Thelma was wonderful at dialect. She vided equally among five English ereative Mirror :Designs had an outlandish sense of humor. It was professors. SIN) .. '°' ... CCLOlt ..ootlMI during the parties that I realized that Her brother, Arthur, her only living Ir···------~ CREATIVE MIRROR DESIGNS"' I Ken had gotten a great deal from her. relative, was not named as an heir in the I Moil'°' 9136 Ho.win, Houston, Texas no36 I Some people make the sad mistake that will. He says he wasn't at all offended NAME I that she directed the house in which he is I ADDRESS ------­ I still living to become a museum. I OTY ------STATE -----­ I Thelma blamed a "We had an understanding," says Ar· I PHONE------ZIP ---- thur. "We owned the house 50/50 in case ~ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •~ HOUas: ~thr"' Fricloy. •- S : JO~ 10..S one of us died. She's decorated the walls New York editor in a room in the house for her son. It's just one room. And I won't be here for for her son's death long. She wanted her money to go to that foundation to honor her son. I plan to do LOOK fO[R BEST FOR THE HOLIDAYS she is the mother, Irene Riley, in the the same thing." book. She's not." The will was dated April 1984. "It's As Milton Rickles says, "It's never as not substantially different from previous simple as that. Certainly, Ken took wills," attorney Hantel says. "She always freely of the elements he saw to create had a wish for a scholarship fund. As far his characters." as the museum, she didn't know what Holditch believes Dunces had diffi­ interest she had in the house. She felt she culty finding a publisher because it was had some interest because it was a piece LEASE ahead of its time. "Thelma was working of property that had been in her family. OR on a sequel to Dunces. I don't know if she Not knowing what, if any, portion of in­ BUY had written it down. She had such a mar­ terest she had, it was her wish that there YOUR velous memory, I fear she didn't write be some memorial to her son there. If we OWN things down." · determine that she had no interest, and TANNING Thelma Toole had a strong personal­ that indeed is possible, if not probable, BED ity, her friends agree. "She was a domi­ then that part of the will will not be nating presence," said Jaeger. "You enforced." learned very quickly that she had strong As far as Holditch knows, Thelma • LOSE WEIGHT - opinions and that it was best not to argue Toole lived on Social Security and in­ with her or try to_get her to change her come from an insurance policy. He as­ di - di.- mind." sumes the bulk of the income from the (NURSES ON DUTY) Holditch concurs. "Thelma was a book is still intact, to fund the scholar­ good friend, but not an easy friend." ship. • LOSE INCHES - For her own reasons, Thelma Toole After a Catholic service, Thelma seemed to hold a New York editor re­ Toole was laid to rest in the Ducoing • LOSE FLAB-muscle stimulation sponsible for Ken's death. The editor had tomb on Canal Street. "She's not next to expressed interest in Ken's book but her son. Someone else is between them. V.-1· sage COMPLEXION CLINIC . later rejected it. "I didn't read the corre­ It's not her husband. I don't know who it " · CONTOUR CENTER spondence, so I don't know," says Ho!- is," says Holditch. • Suite 101 Town & Country Vllloge 464-9031 13623 Stvebner Airline 444-8599 ------TE_X_A_S-,H-o-u-st_o_n_C-hr-o-ni_cl_e_M_o_g_az-in-e-, -D-ec-•~~-be-r-2-,-19_14_ __ P_a9_•_2_5------•I I