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Drafted in 1961, John Kennedy Toole spent two years at Fort Buchanan in Puerto Rico teaching English to Spanish-speaking recruits, and began A Confederacy of Dunces in his private office there. Its hero, Ignatius J. Reilly, is thirty, lives with his mother in New Orleans and despises the modern world from inside a green hunting cap. Robert Gottlieb at Simon & Schuster corresponded with Toole about the manuscript for two years and finally turned it down. On 26 March 1969, aged 31, Toole took his own life near Biloxi, Mississippi. His mother, Thelma, sent the novel to seven publishers over five years, then pressed Walker Percy to read it. LSU Press published it in 1980, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981; it has since sold more than 1.5 million copies in 18 languages. The ten writers below share his territory: a grand, deluded misfit, a city full of fools, and comedy that is never far from despair.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Comic novels · New Orleans · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love John Kennedy Toole, start with Miguel de Cervantes, whose Don Quixote is the first great deluded hero, and Walker Percy, who got Toole’s novel published and wrote his own New Orleans comedy of the soul. For a modern descendant, read Ottessa Moshfegh. The list runs from Gogol and Dickens to the British comic novel.
10 authors like John Kennedy Toole
Where to start if you loved John Kennedy Toole
If you loved Ignatius, read Miguel de Cervantes.
Don Quixote: the original reader who mistook his books for the world.
If you loved the New Orleans of the novel, read Walker Percy.
The Moviegoer: the same city, seen by a quieter misfit.
If you loved the comedy of hopeless jobs, read Kingsley Amis.
Lucky Jim: a lecturer who hates his work, and shows it.
If you want the darker side, read Ottessa Moshfegh.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation: withdrawal from the world, told with the same contempt.
If you want more Toole, read The Neon Bible.
He wrote it at 16 in 1954; it was published in 1989. It is a short, serious novel about a boy in a small Southern town, very different from A Confederacy of Dunces (1980).
Frequently asked questions about authors like John Kennedy Toole
Who writes like John Kennedy Toole?
Miguel de Cervantes, Walker Percy and Ottessa Moshfegh are the closest. Cervantes wrote the first deluded hero, Percy wrote the other great New Orleans novel of a misfit, and Moshfegh writes the same contempt for the world today.
What should I read after A Confederacy of Dunces?
Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer (1961) for New Orleans, and Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954) for the same comedy of an academic misfit.
Did John Kennedy Toole write any other books?
One: The Neon Bible, which he wrote at 16 in 1954. It was published in 1989 and filmed by Terence Davies in 1995.
Why was A Confederacy of Dunces published after his death?
Simon & Schuster turned it down in his lifetime. After his death in 1969 his mother sent it to publishers for years, then persuaded Walker Percy to read it; LSU Press published it in 1980, and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
Is A Confederacy of Dunces like Don Quixote?
Yes in its hero: Ignatius, like Quixote, has read too much medieval literature and sets out to correct a fallen world. Toole is more savage and sets the story in 1960s New Orleans.
Is there a film of A Confederacy of Dunces?
No film has been released. A stage adaptation starring Nick Offerman as Ignatius had its premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston in 2015.
Sources
- John Kennedy Toole — Wikipedia
- John Kennedy Toole — 64 Parishes
- Nick Offerman in A Confederacy of Dunces — WBUR
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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