William Joseph Kennedy (born January 16, 1928) is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his 1983 novel Ironweed.

Kennedy's other works include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), Roscoe (2002) and Changó's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes (2011). Many of his novels have featured the interactions of members of the fictional Irish-American Phelan family in Albany, New York.

Kennedy has also published a non-fiction book entitled O Albany!: Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels (1983).

Early life, family, and education

William Joseph Kennedy was born January 16, 1928, in Albany, New York to William and Mary Kennedy. He is an only child. Kennedy's parents were working-class Irish-Americans. Kennedy was raised Catholic and grew up in the North Albany neighborhood.

Career

Kennedy began pursuing a career in journalism after college by joining the Post Star in Glens Falls as a sports reporter. He was drafted in 1950 and served in the U.S. Army, where he worked for an Army newspaper in Europe. and it won Kennedy a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Kennedy also published a nonfiction book entitled O Albany!: Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels (1983). Writer and Saul Bellow biographer James Atlas credits Kennedy with doing for Albany what James Joyce did for Dublin and Saul Bellow did for Chicago. Kennedy received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Ironweed. He also won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Personal life

Kennedy met Dana (born Ana) Daisy Segarra, a Broadway dancer who went by the stage name Dana Sosa, in her native Puerto Rico. They married in 1957 and had three children. In 1963, they moved from Puerto Rico to Averill Park, New York, where she would die on September 29, 2023.

Bibliography

Fiction

  • The Ink Truck. New York: Viking Press, 1969.

The Albany Cycle

  • Legs. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1975.
  • Billy Phelan's Greatest Game. New York: Viking Press, 1978.
  • Ironweed. New York: Viking Press, 1983.
  • Quinn's Book. New York: Viking Press, 1988.
  • Very Old Bones. New York: Viking Press, 1992.
  • The Flaming Corsage. New York: Viking Press, 1996.
  • Roscoe. New York: Viking Press, 2002.
  • Changó's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes. New York: Viking Adult, 2012.

Nonfiction

  • O Albany!: Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels. New York: Viking Press, 1983.
  • The Making of Ironweed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1988.
  • Riding the Yellow Trolley Car. New York: Viking Press, 1993.

Screenplays

  • The Cotton Club. Co-authored with Francis Ford Coppola. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986.
  • Ironweed. Tri-Star, 1987.

Plays

  • Grand View. Premiered at Capital Repertory Theatre, Albany, New York, 1996.
  • In the System. HumaniTech* Short Play Project Premiere, University at Albany, March 2003.
  • The Light of the World. Premiere reading at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, starring Aidan Quinn. November 2014.

Children's books

  • Charlie Malarkey and the Belly Button Machine (co-authored with Brendan Kennedy). New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986.
  • Charlie Malarkey and the Singing Moose (co-authored with Brendan Kennedy). New York: Viking Children's Books, 1994.

Criticism

  • Flanagan, Thomas. O Albany!. New York Review of Books. April 25, 2002
  • Giamo, Benedict F. The Homeless of Ironweed: Blossoms on the Crag. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1997.
  • Gillespie, Michael Patrick. Reading William Kennedy. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
  • Lynch, Vivian Valvano. Portraits of Artists: Warriors in the Novels of William Kennedy. Bethesda: International Scholars Publications, 1999.
  • Mallon, Thomas. William Kennedy's Greatest Game. The Atlantic Monthly. February 2002.
  • Seshachari, Neila C. Courtesans, Stars, Wives, & Vixens: The Many Faces of Female Power in Kennedy's Novels, AWP Conference, Albany, NY. April 17, 1999.
  • Marowski, Daniel G. and Matur, Roger, editors. "William Kennedy." Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vol. 53, Detroit: Gale Research, 1989, pp. 189–201.
  • Michener, Christian. From Then into Now: William Kennedy's Albany Novels. University of Scranton Press, 1998.
  • Reilly, Edward C. Twayne's United States Authors Series: William Kennedy. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1991.
  • Van Dover, J. K. Understanding William Kennedy. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.
  • Seshachari, Neila C., editor. Conversations with William Kennedy. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1997.

See also

  • University at Albany – Famous Faculty
  • John William Ward (professor)

References

  • Finding Aid for the Papers of William Kennedy
  • Audio recording of William Kennedy reading from unpublished works at the Key West Literary Seminar, 2009
  • Write TV Public Television Interview with William Kennedy
  • 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show
  • M. E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives , University at Albany Libraries.
  • New York State Writers Institute Biography of Kennedy, University at Albany.