Butterfly in the Typewriter (27 page)

 

The 1959–1960 English Department at Southwestern Louisiana Institute. Toole once playfully commented this was a “faculty composed of fiends and madmen.” Department chair, Mary Dichmann, is in the far left of the front row. Nick Polites is in the front row to the far right. Moving to the left of Polites is Patricia Rickels, Muriel Price, Milton Rickels, and J. C. Broussard. Toole is in the top row to the far right. And Bobby Byrne, the most likely model for Ignatius Reilly, is the mustached man in the center of the top row. (
L'Acadien
, Southwestern Louisiana Institute, 1960)

 

In New York in February of 1961, Toole enjoys the mounds of snow in Central Park. He once observed that New Yorkers develop a “snowbound mentality” in the winter months. (LaRC, Tulane University)

 

Toole taught English to draftees in Puerto Rico. He was praised in the local newspaper for his engaging classes and remarkable success as a teacher. Toole was fluent in Spanish, although speaking Spanish was forbidden in the classrooms. (LaRC, Tulane University)

 

After being promoted to leader of Company A, Toole was given a private room. Here, one thousand miles away from New Orleans, he wrote
A Confederacy of Dunces.
(LaRC, Tulane University)

 

Toole enjoyed traveling while in the army. He visited Aruba, the Virgin Islands, and parts of Puerto Rico. Here he leans on a window sill confidently looking into the distance. (LaRC, Tulane University)

 

The English instructors enjoyed access to the officers' club where they would drink and socialize. With laughter in his eyes, Toole looks to Bob Young. Walter Carreiro prepares a smoke, and Toole's close friend Dave Kubach, whose typewriter he borrowed to begin
Confederacy
, digs into Christmas dinner. (Personal collection of Walter Carreiro)

 

The original building of Dominican College facing St. Charles Avenue. Toole taught on the second floor. (Joseph Sanford)

 

Toole in his academic robes at a commencement ceremony at Dominican. This picture appeared on his memorial page in the 1969 yearbook. (St. Mary's Dominican College)

 

Head of the English department at Dominican, Sister Beatrice was a close confidant to Toole. After the publication of
Confederacy
, she refused to grant interviews to reporters, vowing never to violate the trust Toole had in her.

 

Sculptor Angela Gregory was another of Toole's confidants at Dominican. They would often walk to and from campus together.(St. Mary's Dominican College)

 

Taken in the fall of 1968, this is the last picture of Toole before his death. He always prided himself on looking sharp, but in his Tulane library card photo he appears to have gained weight and looks unshaven. (LaRC, Tulane University)

 

Toole was laid to rest in the Ducoing tomb. Only three people attended his funeral: his mother, his father, and his childhood nanny, Beulah Mathews. (Joseph Sanford)