LSU Libraries' Special Collections  and LSU Press
host mini-exhibition and panel discussion

Een samenzwering van idioten.  Tökfilkók Szövetsége.  La conjuration des imbéciles.  No matter how you say it, A Confederacy of Dunces is a world-wide sensation.  Published by LSU Press in 1980, the legendary novel of New Orleans by John Kennedy Toole won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the next year.  Today, there are over two million copies in print in over thirty languages.  But how does such a culturally-specific literary work translate for readers across the globe?

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of A Confederacy of Dunces and its own 75th anniversary, LSU Press will host a panel discussion about the various translated editions of A Confederacy of Dunces on Tuesday, April 27, at 4:30 PM in LSU’s Hill Memorial Library. Betsy Wing, an award-winning French translator, Rod Parker, director of the LSU School of Art, and Laura Gleason, assistant director and design and production manager at LSU Press will discuss how publishers in other countries have interpreted both the text and the cover art of this iconic novel. 

The presentation will feature a slideshow of thirty of the most interesting book jackets, one for each year since the book’s publication.   Door prizes will include copies of the Dutch, German, and Spanish translations.

In association with LSU Press, LSU Libraries’ Special Collections presents a mini-exhibition featuring the cover art of 30 foreign-language editions. The exhibition will be on display from April 21 through July 31, 2010.