Collections : [Business, Literary, and Local History Manuscripts]

William Kennedy continued his writings about the Phelan family with Very Old Bones, his next installment in the "Albany Cycle" of novels published in 1992. This book is set in the 1950s in the city and narrated by Orson Purcell, the out-of-wedlock son of Peter Phelan. The majority of the series consists of manuscript drafts and edited copy, although there are a small number of files containing correspondence, publicity materials, articles and reviews, and excerpts of the novel published in magazines.

In 1995 William Kennedy accompanied President Bill Clinton to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as part of an American delegation, following a cease fire between the Irish Republican Army and the Loyalist Military Command in Northern Ireland in 1994. The delegation included elected officials, business, labor, religious, and community leaders and was designed to promote both peace and U.S. investment. This series documents that particular trip, including invitations, arrangements, news clips, maps, travel items, correspondence, and backgrounders. In addition, Kennedy and his wife attended a White House dinner in 1996 given by the Clintons in honor of the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and the first State visit by an Irish president in more than 30 years. The invitation and dinner menu and related correspondence also are included.

Contains materials about Kennedy's first novel The Ink Truck, initially published in 1969 and then re-issued in 1984 following his success with Ironweed and his receiving the MacArthur Foundation's Genius Award. The novel details the last days of an unsuccessful newspaper strike and is very loosely based on Kennedy's experiences during a newspaper strike in Albany in the mid-1960s. The series includes multiple manuscript drafts, author's notes, book reviews, galleys, publisher agreements and correspondence, and advertising. Please note that the overall series dates are not inclusive.

For his next volume in his "Albany Cycle," William Kennedy returned to recurrent characters Edward and Katrina Daugherty, first introduced in Billy Phelan's Greatest Game. Kennedy charts their lives and subsequent, turbulent marriage in the city between 1884 and 1912 in The Flaming Corsage, published in 1996. The series includes multiple drafts and edited manuscripts, book tour materials, cover artwork, reviews, articles, correspondence, and information about the audio version of the book.

In the summer of 1983 William Kennedy accepted director Francis Ford Coppola's invitation to collaborate with him on a film script for The Cotton Club, a 1930s period drama built around the real Harlem night club in New York. He spent the remainder of that summer and the fall writing and editing, as the movie transitioned from the pre-production phase to principal photography. The film debuted in the United States in 1984. This series documents that intensive writing and re-writing effort with many working scripts, rehearsal scripts, shooting scripts, and editing scripts. In addition, there are production memos and notes, call sheets, publicity materials, reviews, correspondence, and a file about the movie premiere.

In 1996 and 2002 publishers packaged together several of William Kennedy's "Albany Cycle" novels into single volumes for release in the United States and international market. In 1996 Penguin Books released Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, and Ironweed together for the first time with a new author's introduction. Six years later Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK, published two books each containing three re-issued "Albany Cycle" novels. The first consisted of Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, Ironweed, and Very Old Bones. The second featured Quinn's Book, The Flaming Corsage, and Legs. This series includes materials related to these publications as well as a 1976 outline by Kennedy of his vision for the "Albany Cycle" of planned books, and correspondence and proposed artwork for paperback copies of "Albany Cycle" novels issued from Penguin in 2002.

This series consists of manuscript drafts, edited copy, and reviews for Roscoe. Published in 2002, it is part of William Kennedy's "Albany Cycle" of novels. Opening in 1945 Albany, Roscoe centers around Roscoe Conway, a decades-long insider of the Democartic Party and the political machine in the capital city.

This series includes draft copy, galleys, research materials, correspondence, and notes used to prepare William Kennedy's Riding the Yellow Trolley Car, a collection of his essays, articles, and reviews written across four decades. This second nonfiction book from Kennedy appeared in 1993. Of note is the earliest item within the collection, a short story entitled "Eggs" from 1946 which Kennedy submitted to Collier's: The National Weekly for consideration. In addition there are files about publicity, including a book tour, reviews, and fan mail. Please note the overall dates for the series are not inclusive.

Contains drafts, edited copies, the final version, and galleys of Quinn's Book, published by William Kennedy in 1988. Part of the "Albany Cycle," this novel also involves the extended Phelan family, but focuses on the nineteenth century life and adventures of an ancestor named Daniel Quinn. There are many edited and unedited versions of the manuscript; however, the majority of copies are undated. The archivist tried to arrange these undated drafts in chronological order based upon the edits in each version.

Published in 1983, William Kennedy's nonfiction work O Albany! is based upon a series of articles he wrote about the city for the Albany Times-Union in the early-mid 1960s, which garnered him a Pulitzer Prize nomination for journalism. The book looks at Albany neighborhoods, different ethnic and racial groups who settled within the city, landmarks and institutions, and key political leaders. The series includes manuscripts and draft copy, Kennedy's earlier newspaper features, research materials and notes. As all the materials span a significant amount of time, please note the overall dates for this series are not inclusive.