Performance artist Tim Youd has traveled from Los Angeles to try to get inside the literary mind of William Kennedy, line by line, word by word, keystroke by keystroke.
Youd has brought to Kennedy's hometown a 1930s vintage L.C. Smith & Corona upright typewriter, the same model Kennedy used to type his 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Ironweed."
For six days, beginning on July 15, working in roughly three-hour sessions, Youd (pronounced yude) will retype the entire 227-page novel and, for good measure, he'll also retype Kennedy's script for the film version of "Ironweed."
"I've been a big fan of Kennedy's for years," Youd said. He has never met the author, but he's an admirer of his Albany Cycle and by retyping "Ironweed" he expects to come to a deeper, more nuanced appreciation of the author's lyrical prose and the novel's complex internal architecture and literary themes.
