Which William Kennedy novel received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction? Ironweed received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Published in 1983, Ironweed is set largely in Albany, New York, and follows Francis Phelan, a former baseball player and political activist who returns to the city after years away. The novel combines social realism with ghostly encounters and explores guilt, poverty, memory, and attempted redemption.
Ironweed is the third novel in Kennedy’s Albany Cycle, following Legs and Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game. That sequence is one reason quiz-takers may confuse the title with Kennedy’s other well-known books. Quinn’s Book came later in the cycle, while Legs and Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game were earlier novels.
The Pulitzer helped bring Kennedy broad national recognition. Ironweed was also adapted into a 1987 film directed by Héctor Babenco, starring Jack Nicholson as Francis Phelan and Meryl Streep as Helen Archer.