"The Collected Breece D'J Pancake"

Up to a point, the similarities between John Kennedy Toole and Breece D’J Pancake are uncanny. 

Toole (1937-1969) wrote two novels. The first was The Neon Bible, which was published a decade after the second novel, A Confederacy of Dunces. Both received repeated rejections from publishers. Toole would eventually commit suicide in 1969. His mother, Thelma, was determined to see A Confederacy of Dunces published, and she pestered publishers and writers for years, finally wearing down Walker Percy who read it and was blown away. It took Percy three years to find a publisher, and it was LSU Press. A Confederacy of Dunces was a bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 

 

Pancake (an unusual but real last name) wrote 12 short stories and a few fragments of others. Born in 1952 in West Virginia, he managed to graduate from Marshall University. and taught at two military academies. He enrolled in the creative program at the University of Virginia, where he sensed a “class” consciousness between those who held only a B.A. degree and those who had more advanced degrees. But Pancake was the one selling stories to The Atlantic, which made a typographic error when they printed his stories, changing his middle initials “D.J.” to D’J; he kept it. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The American West – Writing Advice from John Steinbeck – William Groneman at Cowboy State Daily.

 

Tariffs in American History – John Steele Gordon at Imprimis / Hillsdale College.

 

At Dr. Johnson’s House – Spitalfields Life.