John Kennedy Toole
Born in New Orleans in 1937, John Kennedy Toole was a gifted writer and teacher with a master’s in English literature from Columbia University.
He wrote two books, The Neon Bible and A Confederacy of Dunces. Both were rejected for publication, the latter after five torturous years of rewrites and resubmissions.
These rejections contributed to his depression and subsequent suicide at the age of 31.
Eleven years later, thanks to the repeated efforts of his mother, A Confederacy of Dunces was published, almost entirely in its first draft form. A year later, John Kennedy Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book has sold over 1.5 million copies in 18 languages.
You can read the Wikipedia page for John Kennedy Toole here. It’s a tragic and fascinating story. It’s also, I believe, an illuminating and cautionary tale for all writers and artists.
Luck and persistence are two sides of the same coin. Every time you attempt to gain an audience for your creation you flip that coin. Every rejection is the coin landing persistence side up. You need to flip it again and again and again until you land lucky side up.
How I wish John Kennedy Toole had kept flipping that coin and soldiered on. But he must have felt crushed knowing he’d created a work of brilliance that no one would allow to shine.
Of course, flipping the coin is no guarantee it will ever land lucky side up. Just take a look at Vincent van Gogh. Of the 900 paintings he produced, he managed to sell only one during his lifetime (to his friend’s sister). Today van Gogh’s paintings are the most valuable in the world.
So why is John Kennedy Toole’s life a cautionary tale? Because I believe it tells us to guard against the corrosive effects of rejection. Harden yourself against it. Pick up the coin and flip it again. Keep submitting your work (or pushing your self-published work). Keep creating new work. Keep flipping.
A E Lorenz 