In 1984 William Kennedy told Terrence Petty that between the publication of The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), and Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978) he and his family "lived on credit and promises to pay. It was a good life, and we had a lot of fun. But we never had an extra nickel." Then, when Ironweed (1983) was rejected by thirteen publishers -- including Viking, its eventual publisher -- Kennedy's future seemed even bleaker, until Saul Bellow admonished Viking for not publishing Ironweed and even prophesied that this novel would be both a commercial and a literary success. Not only was Ironweed a financial boon for Viking, but it also became Kennedy's leprechaun's gold in that it won both the 1983 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Kennedy's other novels were republished in 1983. On his fifty-fifth birthday he received a $264,000 grant from the John D. and...