Intimate portrait of the Pulitzer Prize winner. John Kennedy Toole�s first novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, which Walker Percy called a �gargantuan tumultuous human tragi-comedy,� became a publishing phenomenon, with almost two million copies in print worldwide in eighteen languages. The book�s outrageous protagonist, Ignatius Reilly, is an icon of contemporary American fiction. Now Ken and Thelma sheds new light on the tragic life story of the author, known as �Ken� to his friends. Drawing on his own journals and personal letters, Joel L. Fletcher re-creates his friendship with Ken in the early 1960s and his long association with Ken�s indomitable mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole, both before and after the book�s publication. Includes personal photographs, many never before published.