John Kennedy Toole
John Kennedy Toole was born on December 17, 1937, and he grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Toole's father worked as an automobile salesman and a mechanic before deafness and failing health forced him into retirement. His mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole, was a dominating woman who, convinced that her son was a genius, sheltered him and rarely let him play with other children.
Toole enrolled at Tulane University as an engineer, but he graduated with an undergraduate degree in English. After...