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 p…

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Citation: Lynch, Vivian Valvano. "William Kennedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2478, accessed 07 October 2024.]

2478 William Kennedy 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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