![]() Ironweed, meanwhile, had been rejected by 13 publishers. His first two novels had gone out of print. When Ironweed was published, Kennedy was deep into his 50s. ![]() Things were suddenly going well for Kennedy, but overnight success had been a long time coming. That same year, Kennedy would win the Pulitzer prize for Ironweed, sold the film rights (as well as truck-loads of copies) and received almost universally glowing reviews around the world. A man (called, pleasingly, Dr Hope) called Kennedy and told him he’d won a MacArthur Fellowship – then $264,000 (these days it is a hefty $625,000). He’d assumed it was because “I was getting reviewed in about five different major places” – but that wasn’t the half of it. Six months earlier, he’d opened a fortune cookie that said he was going to have a lucky week. ![]() When the Paris Review interviewed William Kennedy in July 1984, he had just installed a new swimming pool outside his house. ![]()
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