 First edition | |
| Author | William Kennedy |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Coward, McCann & Geoghegan |
Publication date | 1975 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 317 pp |
| ISBN | 0-698-10672-5 |
| OCLC | 1345969 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.K3615 Le PS3561.E428 |
| Preceded by | The Ink Truck |
| Followed by | Billy Phelan's Greatest Game |
Legs is a 1975 novel by William Kennedy. It is the first book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle. [1]
The book chronicles the life of the gangster Jack 'Legs' Diamond. It is told from the perspective of Jack's lawyer, Marcus Gorman. Marcus becomes involved with "Legs" Diamond to add excitement to his otherwise boring life, and the best way to do this was by immortalizing a highly popular gangster. Through Gorman's eyes, Kennedy is able to elicit sympathy for the criminal, transposing this sympathy into the context of America during the 1920s and 30s: excess, collapse, destitution, and analysis of right and wrong, good and evil. [2] [3]
In 2009, Audible.com produced an audio version of Legs, narrated by Joe Barrett, as part of its Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks.
Ironweed is a 1983 novel by American author William Kennedy. Ironweed 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. The novel was adapted into a 1987 film of the same name.
The Untouchables is an American crime drama produced by Desilu Productions that ran from 1959 to 1963 on the ABC television network. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalizes the experiences of Ness as a Prohibition agent fighting crime in Chicago in the 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their courage, moral character and incorruptibility, nicknamed the Untouchables. The book was later made into a celebrated film in 1987 and a second, less-successful TV series in 1993.
Dutch Schultz was an American mobster based in New York City in the 1920s and 1930s. He made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging and the numbers racket. Schultz's rackets were weakened by two tax evasion trials led by United States Attorney Thomas Dewey, and also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano.
William Joseph Kennedy is an American writer and journalist who won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for his 1983 novel Ironweed.
Thomas DeSimone was an American criminal associated with New York City's Lucchese crime family who is alleged to have participated in both the Air France robbery and the Lufthansa heist. He also committed numerous murders, including killing William "Billy Batts" Bentvena in 1970. DeSimone went missing in 1979 and is believed to have been murdered.
Jack the Ripper: The Final Solution is a book written by Stephen Knight first published in 1976. It proposed a solution to five murders in Victorian London that were blamed on an unidentified serial killer known as "Jack the Ripper".
A gun moll or gangster moll or gangster's moll is the female companion of a male professional criminal. "Gun" was British slang for thief, derived from Yiddish ganef. "Moll" is also used as a euphemism for a woman prostitute.
Jack "Legs" Diamond, also known as John Nolan and Gentleman Jack, was an Irish-American gangster in Philadelphia and New York City during the Prohibition era. A bootlegger and close associate of gambler Arnold Rothstein, Diamond survived a number of attempts on his life between 1916 and 1931, causing him to be known as the "clay pigeon of the underworld". In 1930, Diamond's nemesis Dutch Schultz remarked to his own gang, "Ain't there nobody that can shoot this guy so he don't bounce back?"
A leg is a limb used to support an animal or object.
Legs Diamond is an American rock band formed in 1975. They formed in Los Angeles, California, with original members Michael "Diamond" Gargano (bass), Jeff Poole (drums), Roger Romeo (guitar), Rick Sanford (vocals) and Michael Prince and were named for a 1920s gangster of the same name.
Daniel Patrick "Dan" O'Connell was a longtime leader of the Democratic Party political machine in Albany County, New York.
Daniel Sallis Huston is an American actor, director and screenwriter. A member of the Huston family of filmmakers, he is the son of director John Huston and half-brother of actress Anjelica Huston.
The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site is the birthplace and childhood home of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States. The house is at 83 Beals Street in the Coolidge Corner neighborhood of Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy is one of four U.S. presidents born in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The property is now owned by the National Park Service; tours of the house are offered, and a film is presented.
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth novel by the British author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the story at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, inspired by a Sunday Times article on diamond smuggling. The book was first published by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom on 26 March 1956.
Ray Danton was an American radio, film, stage, and television actor, director, and producer whose most famous roles were in the screen biographies The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) and The George Raft Story (1962).
The Kenmore Hotel is a historic building at 74 North Pearl Street in the city of Albany, New York.
Mr. Muggs Steps Out is a 1943 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine and starring The East Side Kids.
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond is a 1960 crime film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Ray Danton, Karen Steele and Elaine Stewart. The supporting cast features Warren Oates, Jesse White and Robert Lowery. The picture marked the film debut of Dyan Cannon and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Howard Shoup.
Marion "Kiki" Roberts was an American dancer and showgirl. She was better known as the girlfriend and moll of American gangster Legs Diamond.
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