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). They, with help from author Walker Percy, succeeded in convincing the Louisiana State University Press to publish John Kennedy Toole's in 1980. Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel in 1981, eleven years after he had committed suicide. Toole's first novel was was , which he wrote at age 16. According to Rhoda K. Faust, Thelma Toole loaned Faust the manuscript of this earlier work and granted her permission to publish it. Sometime around 1980, Thelma Toole demanded the return of the manuscript and denied having given Faust permission to publish it. Faust filed suit claiming that Toole had entered into a verbal contract with her. Courts in Louisiana failed to recognize the validity of the verbal contract. A Confederacy of Dunces The Neon Bible Materials in the collection 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 . 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, ; 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 ; 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, ; 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. A Confederacy of Dunces The Neon Bible A Confederacy of Dunces Carnivaltime
