William Kennedy

Vivian Valvano Lynch (St. John's University)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 16 Jan 1928
Activity 1969-ongoing

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Journalist
Novelist

Resources

Kennedy's Works

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William Kennedy, born in 1928 in Albany, New York, is a distinguished American author whose principal fictional works utilize aspects of Albany’s history while performing intriguing interactions between realistic and mystical elements in their narrative delivery. Awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Price for his seminal novel

Ironweed

, Kennedy is generally recognized as having given his native city a presence in the annals of American literature that it did not previously enjoy. Inevitable comparisons to James Joyce and his delineations of his native Dublin abound in discussions of Kennedy’s work, and the American author’s selective use of stream of consciousness and stylistic experimentation enhance the comparisons. Kennedy’s pointed concentration on Albany has also been compared to the…

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2038 words

Citation: Lynch, Vivian Valvano. "William Kennedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2478, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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