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X. J. Kennedy

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X. J. Kennedy (born 21 August 1929, Dover, New Jersey) is a poet, translator, anthologist, editor, and bestselling writer of children's literature as well as student textbooks on English literature and poetry.

He was born Joseph Charles Kennedy — known to friends as Joe — but not wishing to share a name with Joseph P. Kennedy added an "X" to his first name.

Kennedy attended Seton Hall (BSc, 1950) and Columbia University (MA, 1951). After serving for four years as an enlisted journalist with the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet, he studied at the Sorbonne from 1955&nspace;56, and spent the next six years pursuing a graduate degree in English at the University of Michigan but did not complete his Ph.D. He met his future wife Dorothy Mintzlaff while there; she received her Master's degree in English from the University of Michigan in 1956 and completed coursework there toward her doctorate.

Kennedy taught English at the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Tufts (1963&nspace;78), with visiting professorships at Wellesley, UCLA-Irvine, and Leeds. He became a freelance writer in 1978.

In the early 1970s he and his wife Dorothy co-edited the influential journal, Counter/Measures, a precursor in the New Formalist movement to The Reaper and The Formalist. He served as poetry editor of The Paris Review, and his poetry has been published in The New Yorker, Poetry, and The Hudson Review.

Kennedy is most recognized for his light verse, and was the first recipient of the American Academy of Arts & Letters' Michael Braude Award for Light Verse. His first book, Nude Descending a Staircase, won the 1961 Lamont Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets, and his dozens of books have won numerous awards and honors, including Guggenheim and National Arts Council fellowships, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and a Los Angeles Times Book Award for poetry (in 1985 for Cross Ties: Selected Poems), the 1969/70 Shelley Memorial Award, the Golden Rose of the New England Poetry Club, honorary degrees from Lawrence and Adelphi Universities and Westfield State College. Kennedy received the National Council of Teachers of English Year 2000 Award for Excellence in Children's Poetry. He received the 2004 Poets' Prize for his most recent work, The Lords of Misrule: Poems 1992&nspace;2002.

Kennedy is also widely known for his "Brats" series of dark children's poetry books, his translation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, and Tygers of Wrath, an anthology of angry verse. With his wife Dorothy M. Kennedy and scholar Jane E. Aaron, he is the editor of The Bedford Reader, a collegiate literature textbook also popular for teaching to the AP English Language and Composition test.

X. J. Kennedy and his wife Dorothy, who have five children and six grandchildren, live in Lexington, Massachusetts.

References

  • Morris, Bernard E., Taking Measure: The Poetry and Prose of X.J. Kennedy (Susquehanna University Press, 2003)

Bibliography

For Children

  • Ghastlies, Goops and Pincushions by X.J. Kennedy and illustrated by Ron Barrett (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster, 1989); out of print
  • The Beasts of Bethlehem by X.J. Kennedy and illustrated by Michael McCurdy (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster, 1992); out of print. Poems about the Nativity, based on the legend that the animals in the stable could speak on Christmas Eve.
  • Uncle Switch: Loony Limericks by X.J. Kennedy and illustrated by John O'Brien; out of print.
  • Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-me Book of Poems, selected by X.J. and Dorothy M. Kennedy and illustrated by Jane Dyer (Little, Brown & Company, 1992)
  • The Eagle as Wide as the World by X.J. Kennedy (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster, 1997); a novel for children
  • Elempyics by X.J. Kennedy, illustrated by Graham Percy (Philomel Books/Penguin Putnam, 1999)
  • Knock at a Star: A Child's Introduction to Poetry, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy and illustrated by Karen Lee Baker (Little, Brown & Company, revised edition, 1999)
  • Exploding Gravy: Poems to Make You Laugh by X.J. Kennedy, illustrated by Joy Allen (Little, Brown, 2002)
  • Elefantina's Dream by X.J. Kennedy, illustrated by Graham Percy (Philomel Books/Penguin Putnam, 2002)
  • The Owlstone Crown by X.J. Kennedy (Front Street/Boyd Mills, 2005); a novel for children, first published in 1983
  • Knee-Deep in Blazing Snow: Growing up in Vermont/Poems by James Hayford, chosen by X. J. Kennedy & Dorothy M. Kennedy (Wordsong/ Boyds Mills, 2005)

For Adults

  • Tygers of Wrath: Poems of Hate, Anger, and Invective", collected and edited by X.J. Kennedy, with wood engravings by Michael McCurdy (University of Georgia Press, 1981)
  • Cross Ties: Selected Poems by X.J. Kennedy (University of Georgia Press, 1985)
  • Dark Horses: New Poems by X.J. Kennedy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)
  • Nude Descending a Staircase: Poems, Songs, a Ballad by X.J. Kennedy (reprint edition in the Classic Contemporary Series, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1994)
  • Aristophanes' Lysistrata, a new English version by X.J. Kennedy from Aristophones, Volume 2 (The Penn Complete Greek Drama Series), edited by David R. Slavitt & Palmer Bovie (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999)
  • The Lords of Misrule: Poems, 1992&nspace;2001 by X.J. Kennedy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002)
  • Pegasus Descending: A Book of the Best Bad Verse, compiled by James Camp, X.J. Kennedy, and Keith Waldrop (Burning Deck, 2003, reprint edition); originally published by Macmillan, 1971

For Students of All Ages; all but the first are meant as college texts but have been used happily and successfully by high school students

  • Knock at a Star: A Child's Introduction to Poetry, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dorothy M. Kennedy and illustrated by Karen Lee Baker (Little, Brown & Company, revised edition, 1999)
  • Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia (Pearson/Longman, 10th edition, 2007); this edition is also available as a boxed set of four separate paperbacks, as Literature, Portable Edition
  • An Introduction to Poetry by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia (Pearson/Longman, 12th edition, 2007)
  • An Introduction to Fiction by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia (Pearson/Longman, 10th edition, 2007)
  • Handbook of Literary Terms by X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia, and Mark Bauerlein (Pearson/Longman, 2005); also available as a trade paperback as The Longman Dictionary of Literary Terms (2006)
  • Writing and Revising: A Portable Guide by X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F. Muth (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2007)
  • The Bedford Reader by X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 9th edition, 2006); an abridged edition, The Brief Bedford Reader (9th edition) is also available
  • The Bedford Guide for College Writers by X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, Marcia F. Muth, and Sylvia A. Holliday (Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 7th edition, 2005)
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