Kennedy's books include Marie Dressler: A Biography (1999),Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory: Hollywood’s Genius Bad Boy with a foreword by Kevin Brownlow (2004), Joan Blondell: A Life between Takes (2007),Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s (2014), and OnElizabeth Taylor: An Opinionated Guide (2024).
Kennedy’s books on film have received praise. In reviewing Joan Blondell, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin wrote, "Kennedy is a genuinely good writer who knows the language as well as he does vintage Hollywood movies. This book gets my highest recommendation."[4]The National Board of Review found Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory to be "a fascinating read,"[5] and linguist and political commentator John McWhorter reviewed Marie Dressler with "Bullseye! ... this book finally does this fabulous star justice with comprehensive research on her now-obscured early life; loving, intelligent coverage of all her extant films; savvy, well-written documentation of her stage career, and endlessly perceptive reconstruction of what Dressler was like as a human being.... Truly a bravura performance - Dressler lives again."[6][7]
^“Matthew Kennedy wins Cable Car Award.” City Currents (Marketing and Public Information Office of City College of San Francisco). May 1995. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
^Anonymous. Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (2000), p. 316.
^“Matthew Kennedy Named Community College Honors Program Faculty Member of Year 2011”. City Currents (Marketing and Public Information Office of City College of San Francisco). 13 June 2011. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
^Block, Alex Ben and Lucy Autrey Wilson, editors. George Lucas’s Blockbusting (2010), p. ix.
^Saltz, Rachel (21 December 2007) “Joan Blondell: The Blond Bombshell from 91st Street.” The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2011.