John Kennedy Toole

John Kennedy Toole was an American novelist born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1937. He attended Tulane University and Columbia University, and taught English at Hunter College in New York City. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1961 and served in Puerto Rico. After his discharge, he returned to New Orleans and taught at Dominican College. He struggled to get his novels published, and eventually committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 31. His novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, was published posthumously in 1980 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.