KENNEDY, Randy

PERSONAL:

Born in TX; married.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Simon and Schuster, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

CAREER:

New York Times, New York, NY, staff writer and columnist, beginning 1994.

WRITINGS:

Subwayland: Adventures in the World beneath New York, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Randy Kennedy, a native Texan, is a transit reporter for the New York Times. From 2000 until 2003, his column, "Tunnel Vision," appeared there weekly, containing his musings and observations about the New York City subway system. His 2004 publication Subwayland: Adventures in the World beneath New York is a collection of Kennedy's best-liked articles from that column.

In Kirkus Reviews, Kennedy describes the city's subway as "a society unto itself, with its own citizenry, government, flora and fauna, customs, myths, taboos." In the book, the columns are thematically organized into sections like "Underground Government," "Wild-life," or "Disaster down Under," the last containing columns relating to 9/11. Kennedy provides interesting facts and trivia about the subway. His main focus, however, is on people and the stories they have to tell, both the people that ride the subway and those that make it run. He talks about pickpocket cops, performers, token booth operators and subway buffs, suggesting that by bringing all these people together, the subway has united the city in more ways than one.

Audrey Snowden, while recommending Subwayland for libraries in a Library Journal review, predicted that the book would also become a popular choice "for students of sociology, prospective visitors to New York, or readers just looking to explore a slice of Americana." A critic for Kirkus Reviews found it to be "engaging and nattily written," and a reviewer for Publishers Weekly called it an "ode to public transportation" that should "find a sizeable and enthusiastic audience," notably with the subway's centennial coinciding with the book's publication.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Entertainment Weekly, February 13, 2004, Troy Patterson, review of Subwayland: Adventures in the World beneath New York, p. 74.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2003, review of Subwayland, p. 1393.

Library Journal, February 15, 2004, Audrey Snowden, review of Subwayland, p. 150.

Publishers Weekly, January 19, 2004, review of Subwayland, p. 66.

Railway Age, June, 2004, Randy Kennedy, "New York's Perpetual Motion Machine," NYCT section, p. 32.

U.S. News & World Report, February 16, 2004, Justin Ewers, "Under the Big Apple," p. 62.

ONLINE

Playback St. Louis Web site,http://playbackstl.com/ (September 28, 2004), Rob Levy, "Riding the Crosstown with Randy Kennedy."

Rawbrick.net,http://www.rawbrick.net/ (September 28, 2004), review of Subwayland.*