Did you know that William Kennedy actually bought Legs Diamond’s house? This house, located on 67 Dove Street was the scene of a scandal from Albany’s history. It was in this house where Legs’s notorious drug dealing and gangster reputation finally caught up to him and where he was murdered in December of 1931.
Kennedy’s personal interest in Mr. Diamond emerged when he researched and wrote a historical fiction novel focused around him, Legs (1975). This book, along with the others from Kennedy’s “Albany Cycle” series, brought life to the historical events of Albany’s history. A contemporary retelling of Albany’s history not only emphasizes the importance of knowing your hometown’s past, but draws more attention to the area. Kennedy’s research into the local history is a significant part of what earned him the title of Literary Legend.
“Does anyone think these superlatives were casually earned? Why he [Jack (Legs) Diamond] was a pioneer, the founder of the first truly modern gang, the dauphin of the town for years. He filled the tabloids – never easy. He advanced the cause of joyful corruption and vice. He put the drop of the creature on the parched tongues of millions. He filled the pipes that pacify the troubled, loaded the needles that puncture anxiety bubbles. He helped the world kick the gong around, Jack did. And was he thanked for this benevolence? Hardly. The final historical image that endures is that corpse clad in underwear, flat-assed out in bed, broke and alone.” – William Kennedy, Legs
William Kennedy is a Pulitzer Prize winning author who grew up in the Albany area. He was honored as a Literary Legend back at the 2014 gala. Kennedy is best known for his accomplishments as a Albany Times Union journalist as well as a creative writer. He pursued his career as a journalist right after graduating Siena College and since then, he’s worked for a small selection of publications: Post Star located in Glens Falls and the Albany Times Union. After spending years in journalism, he was encouraged by his colleagues to dabble in his own creative writing. So, later in life, Kennedy finally began working on his own novels, however he did not leave behind his journalism skills in the haste of creating novels. As a matter of fact, most of Kennedy’s novels take place in Albany, NY, combining his own fictitious worlds with the reality of the city he grew up in, studied in and worked in. Kennedy constructed an “Albany Cycle” series with eight books. Each book takes place in a different time period through Albany’s history, they range from the 1850’s to the 1950’s drawing attention to the different events throughout Albany’s history. In these books, Kennedy was able to combine his own fictitious characters and worlds to the reality of the city he’s learned so much about over his lifetime.
Kennedy’s contribution to the city of Albany, however, does not stop with his literary works. Kennedy spent 1974 to 1982 teaching creative writing and journalism at the University at Albany. He also taught writing at Cornell University from 1982 to 1983. Through his teaching, Kennedy is giving back his own knowledge to the community.
Arguably, Kennedy’s most notable achievement for Albany is that of founding and establishing the New York State Writers Institute of Albany in 1983. Kennedy founded the organization when he was awarded a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, wherein he was allowed to donate $15,000 for five years to the institution of his choice and he chose the University at Albany. Then the school made a commitment to match those funds in order to establish a “visiting writers series’ which ended up developing into the NYS Writers Institute, an organization designed to bring together members of the Albany community to celebrate literature, writing and performance.
