Skip to content

Ironweed : Pulitzer Prize Winner (a Novel)
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Ironweed : Pulitzer Prize Winner (a Novel) Paperback - 1984

by Kennedy, William

  • Used

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is now a movie directed by Hector Babenco ( Kiss of the Spider Woman) starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep. Nicholson plays Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, full-time drunk, a man trying to make peace with the ghosts of his past and present. 8 pages of photos.

Description

Penguin Publishing Group. Used - Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Used - Good
NZ$11.07
FREE Shipping to USA Standard delivery: 4 to 8 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Better World Books (Indiana, United States)
The BIBLIO Guarantee | Ask Seller a Question

Details

  • Title Ironweed : Pulitzer Prize Winner (a Novel)
  • Author Kennedy, William
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Condition Used - Good
  • Pages 227
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Publishing Group, New York
  • Date 1984-02-07
  • Bookseller's Inventory # 2221088-75
  • ISBN 9780140070200 / 0140070206
  • Weight 0.37 lbs (0.17 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.76 x 5.16 x 0.45 in (19.71 x 13.11 x 1.14 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: Mid-Atlantic
    • Geographic Orientation: New York
  • Library of Congress subjects Domestic fiction, Family - New York (State) - Albany
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 83013470
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

About Better World Books Indiana, United States

Biblio member since 2005
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Better World Books is the world's leading socially conscious online bookseller and has sold over 100 million books. Each sale generates funds for global literacy and education initiatives. We offer low prices, fast shipping, and have a 100% money back guarantee, if you are not completely satisfied.

Terms of Sale:

Better World Books wants every single one of its customers to be happy with their purchase. If you are not satisfied your purchase or simply find out that it was not the book you were looking for, please e-mail us at: help@betterworldbooks.com. We will get back to you as soon as possible with directions on how to return the book to our warehouse. Please keep in mind that because we deal mostly in used books, any extra components, such as CDs or access codes, are usually not included. CDs: If the book does include a CD, it will be noted in the book's description ("With CD!"). Otherwise, there is no CD included, even if the term is used in the book's title. Access Codes: Unless the book is described as "New," please assume that the book does *not* have an access code.

Browse books from Better World Books

About this book

The third novel in William Kennedy’s Albany Cycle series, Ironweed (1983) is set during the Great Depression. It follows Francis Phelan, a drifter from Albany, New York. After a devastating accident where he killed his child, he becomes a wandering alcoholic, but at the beginning of the novel has returned home. Detailing Francis’s life following his homecoming, Ironwood tells the tragic tale of a man haunted by his past. The striking novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1984 and was adapted into a film in 1987.

Summary

Ironweed, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is the best-known of William Kennedy's three Albany-based novels. Francis Phelan, ex-ballplayer, part-time gravedigger, full-time drunk, has hit bottom. Years ago he left Albany in a hurry after killing a scab during a trolley workers' strike; he ran away again after accidentally—and fatally—dropping his infant son. Now, in 1938, Francis is back in town, roaming the old familiar streets with his hobo pal, Helen, trying to make peace with the ghosts of the past and the present...

From the publisher

William Kennedy, author, screenwriter and playwright, was born and raised in Albany, New York. Kennedy brought his native city to literary life in many of his works. The Albany cycle, includes Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, and the Pulitzer Prize winning Ironweed. The versatile Kennedy wrote the screenplay for Ironweed, the play Grand View, and cowrote the screenplay for the The Cotton Club with Francis Ford Coppola. Kennedy also wrote the nonfiction O Albany! and Riding the Yellow Trolley Car. Some of the other works he is known for include Roscoe and Very Old Bones.

Kennedy is a professor in the English department at the State University of New York at Albany. He is the founding director of the New York State Writers Institute and, in 1993, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has received numerous literary awards, including the Literary Lions Award from the New York Public Library, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Governor’s Arts Award. Kennedy was also named Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France and a member of the board of directors of the New York State Council for the Humanities.

First Edition Identification

The first edition of Ironwood was published in 1983 by The Viking Press in New York, N.Y. The novel is hardcover, with a dust jacket designed by Neil Stuart, and containing a photo on the cover taken by Margaret Bourke-White. This edition is 227 pages long and has the original price of $14.75 printed on the top right corner of the inside cover of the dust jacket. There are two primary identifying features of this edition. First, there is no photo of the author printed on the inside back of the dust jacket, as there is in other printings. Second, on the copyright page, “first published in 1983 by The Viking Press” is printed below the copyright information, instead of above the logo of The Viking Press, which is where it’s located in subsequent printings. While some might mistake the misspelling of “perceived” on page 205, line 22, as an identifying point, it is not, as this misspelling continues through the third printing. 

Media reviews

"A powerfully affecting work, abounding in humor and heartbreak."—Chicago Tribune Bookworld

"A remarkable and most original novel."—Alison Lurie

About the author

William Kennedy, author, screenwriter and playwright, was born and raised in Albany, New York. Kennedy brought his native city to literary life in many of his works. The Albany cycle, includes Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, and the Pulitzer Prize winning Ironweed.The versatile Kennedy wrote the screenplay for Ironweed, the play Grand View, and cowrote the screenplay for the The Cotton Club with Francis Ford Coppola. Kennedy also wrote the nonfiction O Albany! and Riding the Yellow Trolley Car. Some of the other works he is known for include Roscoe and Very Old Bones.

Kennedy is the founding director of the New York State Writers Institute and, in 1993, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has received numerous literary awards, including the Literary Lions Award from the New York Public Library, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Governor's Arts Award. Kennedy was also named Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in France and a member of the board of directors of the New York State Council for the Humanities.

Hang on… we’re fetching the requested page.