Restrictions to Access

Use of audiocassettes or videotapes may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Rhoda K. Faust Collection on John Kennedy Toole and Other Materials #5315, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from Rhoda K. Faust of New Orleans, La., in February 2007; transferred from the Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in February 2007 (Acc. 100601).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Authors, American--20th century.
• Bebinger, Craig.
• Booksellers and bookselling.
• Faust Publishing.
• Faust, Rhoda K.
• Gottlieb, Robert, 1931-
• Lemann, Nancy.
• Maple Street Bookshop (New Orleans, La.)
• Mitchell, Reid.
• Mothers and sons--Louisiana--New Orleans.
• Mothers of authors.
• New Orleans (La.)--Intellectual life.
• Novelists, American--20th century.
• Publishers and publishing.
• Toole, John Kennedy, 1937-1969--Estate.
• Toole, John Kennedy, 1937-1969.
• Toole, John Kennedy, 1937-1969. A confederacy of dunces.
• Toole, John Kennedy, 1937-1969. The neon bible.
• Toole, Thelma.

• Walker Percy Papers #4294, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Rhoda K. Faust owned and operated Maple Street Bookshop and Faust Publishing, both of New Orleans, La. Around 1979, Faust befriended Thelma Toole, mother of author John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969). Together Faust and Thelma Toole, with the help of author Walker Percy, succeeded in convincing the Louisiana State University Press to publish John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces in 1980. Although John Kennedy Toole had committed suicide eleven years earlier in 1969, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for A Confederacy of Dunces in 1981. Before writing A Confederacy of Dunces in his late 20s, John Kennedy Toole had authored another novel, The Neon Bible, at age 16. According to Rhoda K. Faust, Toole's mother, Thelma Toole, loaned Faust the manuscript of this earlier work and granted her permission to publish it. Sometime around 1980, the friendly relationship between Faust and Thelma Toole turned sour, and Thelma Toole demanded the return of the manuscript and denied ever giving Faust permission to publish The Neon Bible . Faust filed suit against Thelma Toole claiming that Toole had entered into a verbal contract with her, which granted her company, Faust Publishing, the right to publish The Neon Bible. Lower courts and appeals courts in Louisiana failed to recognize the validity of the verbal contract. The Neon Bible was finally published by Grove Press in 1989.

The collection is materials from New Orleans, La., bookseller and publisher Rhoda K. Faust, most of which relate to Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Kennedy Toole. Materials include scrapbooks compiled by Faust containing photocopies of letters, 1962-1963, from John Kennedy Toole to his parents, and correspondence, 1963-1964, between Toole and publisher Robert Gottlieb of Simon and Schuster regarding possible publication of Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces . Additional materials include correspondence and legal documents, 1980-1986, related to the lawsuit between Rhoda Faust and Thelma Toole regarding publication rights to John Kennedy Toole's first novel, The Neon Bible; clippings related to John Kennedy Toole, Rhoda Faust, and the lawsuit; materials related to Faust's management of Maple Street Bookshop and Faust Publishing; photographs of John Kennedy Toole, Thelma Toole, and Rhoda K. Faust; audiocassettes and a videotape related to John Kennedy Toole and A Confederacy of Dunces ; information regarding Toole's personal library; and three coffee mugs belonging to Toole. There is also correspondence with Reid Mitchell, 1982-1985, about the possible publication of his manuscript, Carnivaltime; with Nancy Lemann, 1983-1985, relating to her role as editorial advisor to Faust Publishing ; and with Craig Bebinger, who wrote an article describing an incident at the Maple Street Bookshop.

• Audiocassettes (C-5315/1-3)
• Videotape (VT-5315/1)