 First edition | |
| Author | William Kennedy |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Viking Press |
Publication date | 1978 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 282 pp |
| ISBN | 0-670-16667-7 |
| OCLC | 3630990 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.K3615 Bi PS3561.E428 |
| Preceded by | Legs |
| Followed by | Ironweed |
Billy Phelan's Greatest Game is a 1978 novel by William Kennedy. It is the second book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle.
The narrative is based on an actual event: The attempted 1933 kidnapping of John O'Connell Jr., the nephew of Albany Democratic boss Daniel P. O'Connell. [1]
In 1930s Albany, New York, Billy Phelan is a hustler at pool, card sharp, bowler, and occasional bookmaker. [2] Martin Daugherty is a reporter, and the son of a famous writer now grown old. [2] Phelan and Daugherty become involved in the events surrounding the kidnapping of the son of a corrupt Albany political boss. [2]
The kidnapping is the central point of the story, but Kennedy also details the everyday lives of the characters inhabiting Albany's working class and poor neighborhoods. [2] Some of the characters, including Billy Phelan's father Francis, appear in Ironweed , the third installment of the Albany Cycle. [2]
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, narrated by Nick Sullivan, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during the preceding calendar year.
Ironweed is a 1983 novel by William Kennedy. It received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is the third book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle. It is included in the Western Canon of the critic Harold Bloom.
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his novel Ironweed.
Edwin G. "Ted" Burrows was a Distinguished Professor of History at Brooklyn College. He is the co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (1998), and author of Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War, (2008), which won the 2009 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award.
Daniel Patrick "Dan" O'Connell was a longtime leader of the Democratic Party political machine in Albany County, New York.
Norman Charles Miller is an American journalist who worked for The Wall Street Journal.
Francis Phelan is a fictional character in many of William J. Kennedy’s Albany novels, though he is featured most prominently in Ironweed. He is a former professional baseball player who left Albany in shame after dropping his infant son Gerald.
Michael Dirda is a book critic for the Washington Post. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
Stanley Joseph Forman is an American photojournalist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography two years in a row while working at the Boston Herald American.
Ironweed is a 1987 American drama film directed by Héctor Babenco. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by William Kennedy, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, with Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora, Fred Gwynne, Nathan Lane and Tom Waits in supporting roles. The story concerns the relationship of a homeless couple: Francis, an alcoholic, and Helen, a terminally ill woman during the years following the Great Depression. Major portions of the film were shot on location in Albany, New York, including Jay Street at Lark Street, Albany Rural Cemetery, and the Miss Albany Diner on North Broadway. Despite mixed reviews and being a box-office bomb, Ironweed received two nominations at the 60th Academy Awards, Best Actor, and Best Actress.
Paul Herman Buck was an American historian. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1938 and became the first Provost of Harvard University in 1945.
Roy Franklin Nichols was an American historian, who won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Disruption of American Democracy.
Whitmer is a census-designated place (CDP) in Randolph County, West Virginia, United States. It is 7.5 miles (12.1 km) south-southwest of Harman and is situated on the Dry Fork Cheat River. Whitmer had a post office, which closed on May 21, 2011. As of the 2010 census, its population was 106.
Frederic Lauriston Bullard was an American Christian minister and later an editorialist who won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his work in the Boston Herald entitled "We Submit", which argued for a retrial in the Sacco and Vanzetti case. He also wrote several books regarding Abraham Lincoln.
Edward Daniel Kuekes was an American editorial cartoonist. Working for the Cleveland, Ohio Plain Dealer, he won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.
Elliot G. Jaspin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist.
Philip P. Kerby (1911-1993) was an American editorial writer who worked for the Los Angeles Times from 1971 to 1985. He won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1976.
Mary Wells Ashworth was an American historian. She was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship for biography in 1955 and was a co-winner of the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for George Washington, Volumes I-VII.
Thomas "Tom" Jeffrey Knudson is an American journalist and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner in 1985 and 1992.
Patrick Joseph Sloyan was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, known for reporting on the Gulf War during the 1990s and revealing deaths of American troops caused by friendly fire.
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