Douglas Kenney
| Douglas Kenney | |
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Mid-1970s portrait by Pedar Ness
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| Born | Douglas C. Kenney December 10, 1946 Palm Springs, Florida, U.S. |
| Died | August 29, 1980 (aged 33) Kauai, Hawaii, U.S. |
| Occupation | Screenwriter magazine editor |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1965-1980 |
| Genre | Humour |
| Notable works |
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Douglas C. Kenney (December 10, 1946 – August 29, 1980) was an American writer and actor who co-founded the magazine National Lampoon in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material.
Kenney was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, but his family moved to Mentor, Ohio in the early 1950s, before settling in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Kenney lived in Chagrin Falls from 1958-1964 and attended Gilmour Academy, a Catholic prep high school for boys in nearby Gates Mills, Ohio.
While at Harvard University, Kenney was a member of the Signet society and editor of The Harvard Lampoon. There, he was part of the first group of newcomers who restyled the college humor magazine. Another of these writers was Henry Beard, with whom Kenney frequently collaborated, and who became a lifelong friend. Together with Beard, he wrote Bored of the Rings, which was published during 1969. Kenney graduated in 1968. Soon after, he, Beard and fellow Harvard alumnus Robert Hoffman began work on founding the humor magazine National Lampoon.
Kenney was one of the originating forces of what was to become known during the 1970s as the "new wave" of comedy, a dark, irreverent style of humor Kenney used as the basis for the magazine. Kenney was Editor-in-Chief from 1970 to 1972, Senior Editor 1973 to 1974, and Editor from 1975 to 1976.
Kenney wrote much of the early material, such as "Mrs. Agnew's Diary", a regular column written as the diary of Spiro Agnew (or "Spiggy")'s wife, chronicling her life amongst Richard Nixon and other famous politicians. The feature was an Americanized version of Private Eye's long-running column "Mrs. Wilson's Diary," written from the viewpoint of Prime Minister Harold Wilson's wife.
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