William Thomas Gaddis, Jr. was an American novelist. The first and longest of his five novels, The Recognitions, was named one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels from 1923 to 2005 and two others won the annual U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. A collection of his essays was published posthumously as The Rush for Second Place . Gaddis is one of the first and most important American postmodern writers. Because of their complexity and inventiveness in structure and style, his novels are often challenging to read; for example, his National Book Award winners J R and A Frolic of His Own are... written almost entirely in dialogue form and without much description, which sometimes confuses which character is speaking. His books are also known for their extensive use of literary and cultural allusions, some of which are annotated in the The Gaddis Annotations. Gaddis was born in New York City to William Thomas Gaddis, who worked "on Wall Street and in politics", and Edith Gaddis, an executive for the New York Steam Corporation. When he was 3, his parents separated and Gaddis was subsequently raised by his mother in Massapequa, Long Island.
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