Ken and Thelma: The Story of a Confederacy of Dunces (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781455622825)

During his childhood in Lafayette, Louisiana, Joel L. Fletcher enjoyed meeting and learning from the various speakers, scholars, and artists who visited the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. This ignited a love and appreciation for history, literature, and art that has inspired Fletcher throughout his life.

After earning a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and completing a year of graduate school at Stanford, he briefly taught college-level English before moving to Europe. While abroad, he wrote extensively on travel and began studying art history and collecting art while working in the field of international educational exchange for the Council on International Educational Exchange and the City University of New York. Upon his return to America, Fletcher began a career as an art dealer. A specialist in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century fine art, he is now a certified art appraiser who has curated many exhibits and written essays for art magazines and museum catalogs. He also done extensive historical research into the true stories that inspire American literature. Fletcher lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he is a partner in Fletcher/Copenhaver Fine Art.