In a sense, one might say that a full understanding of Ironweed is predicated on a reading of the earlier novels. The young Francis Phelan's participation in the trolley strike is more clearly understood after reading The Ink Truck (1969) wherein the protagonist, Bailey, gains heroic dimension as the idealistic union protester whom the reader follows through various apparently ineffective although ultimately victorious acts. But it was with the second novel, Legs (1975) that Kennedy began to draw fictive portraits of characters who overtly resided in the real city of Albany and whose paths overlapped much like those of characters Faulkner created in his Yoknapatawpha novels.

Thus, Legs Diamond's lawyer, Marcus, a central figure in Legs, is referred to in Billy Phelan's Greatest Game (1978) and Ironweed (1983) as the lawyer who successfully defends Francis against the charge of illegal voter registration.

Francis Phelan is briefly referred to in Legs...