born Jan. 16, 1928, Albany, N.Y., U.S.
U.S. novelist and journalist.
He worked as a journalist in New York and Puerto Rico before returning in 1963 to his native Albany, N.Y., which he considered the source of his literary inspiration. His novels, which are set in Albany and contain elements of local history and the supernatural, include The Ink Truck (1969), Legs (1975), Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978), and Ironweed (1983, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1987).