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NEW YORK (AP) -- Award-winning poet, author, translator and educator X.J. Kennedy has died. He was 96.
He schooled millions of students through "The Bedford Reader" and other textbooks and engaged voluntary readers with his children's stories and intricate, witty verse.
Born Joseph Charles Kennedy, he chose the professional name X.J. Kennedy as a young man to avoid confusion with Joseph P. Kennedy, the father of President John F. Kennedy.
Starting in the early 1960s, he turned out dozens of poetry and children's books, contributed to the popular Bedford Reader and collaborated with the poet Dana Gioia on anthologies of poetry, drama and fiction.