William Kennedy Biography
William Kennedy is a famous American writer and journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his novel Ironweed, published in 1983. After college, Kennedy began his professional career as a sports reporter for the Glens Falls Post Star.
William Kennedy Age
Kennedy was born William Joseph Kennedy on January 16, 1928 in Albany, New York, USA. He is 95 years old as of January 2023.
William Kennedy Education
He went to Public School 20 as well as Christian Brothers Academy. Kennedy attended Siena College in Loudonville, New York, and graduated in 1949.
William Kennedy Family
Joseph Kennedy was born and raised in Albany, New York on January 16, 1928 the son of William and Mary Kennedy. He is the only child in the family. Kennedy’s parents were Irish-Americans from the working class. Kennedy was reared as a Catholic in the North Albany area.
William Kennedy Wife
Kennedy met and married Daisy (Dana) Sosa In Puerto Rico. They have three children.
William Kennedy Career
After college, Kennedy began his professional career as a sports reporter for the Glens Falls Post Star. In 1950, he was drafted and served in the United States Army, where he worked for an Army newspaper in Europe. After his discharge, Kennedy worked as a reporter for the Albany Times Union. In 1956, he moved to Puerto Rico and became the managing editor of the San Juan Star, a new English-language daily. He befriended writer and author Hunter S. Thompson while living in San Juan, and their connection lasted throughout their careers. In 1963, Kennedy, who had been ready to leave Albany, returned to his hometown.
In 1969, Kennedy released his first novel, The Ink Truck. The protagonist of the tale is a journalist who organizes a strike at his newspaper in Albany. Kennedy taught creative writing and journalism at the University of Albany from 1974 to 1982, becoming a full professor in 1983. During the 1982-1983 academic year, he was a visiting professor at Cornell University, where he taught writing. Legs (on Jack (“Legs”) Diamond, a gangster slain in Albany in 1931) was published in 1975, and Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game (about a fictional Albany hustler) was published in 1978. While both novels garnered positive reviews from critics, they did not sell well.[9Ironweed (novel) (1983), Kennedy’s next novel, was rejected 13 times by publishers.
Kennedy created the screenplay for the 1987 film adaptation of his novel of the same name. Kennedy also wrote a nonfiction book, O Albany! : Improbable City of Political Wizards, Fearless Ethnics, Spectacular Aristocrats, Splendid Nobodies, and Underrated Scoundrels, which was published in 1983. Quinn’s Book (1988), Very Old Bones (1992), The Flaming Corsage (1996), Roscoe (2002), and Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes (2011) are among Kennedy’s other novels. He’s also written plays and screenplays, as well as two children’s books alongside his son, Brendan Kennedy. Book critic Jonathan Yardley hailed Kennedy’s usage of Albany as portraying “a portrait of a single city perhaps unique in American fiction” in 2011.
William Kennedy Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of 1 million dollars.