 That was Corey McLaughlin talking about John Kennedy Toole, author of the posthumously awarded Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Confederacy of Dunces. While alive, Toole was fascinated by the edges of the country, New Orleans, L.A., Georgia. Here are the facts. On January 19, 1968, after a particularly heated argument with his mother, Toole stormed out of her house in New Orleans, got in his car, and began his trip to nowhere. First, we think to L.A. and Hearst Castle.