Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five is "a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century" (Time). Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time - One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber's son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming "unstuck in time." An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut's writing--the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit--that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O'Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut's words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as "the kind of writer who made people--young people especially--want to write." George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be "the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves." More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era's uncertainties.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYNewsweek/The Daily Beast - The Huffington Post - Kansas City Star - Time Out New York - Kirkus ReviewsThis extraordinary collection of personal correspondence has all the hallmarks of Kurt Vonnegut's fiction. Written over a sixty-year period, these letters, the vast majority of them never before published, are funny, moving, and full of the same uncanny wisdom that has endeared his work to readers worldwide. Included in this comprehensive volume: the letter a twenty-two-year-old Vonnegut wrote home immediately upon being freed from a German POW camp, recounting the ghastly firebombing of Dresden that would be the subject of his masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five; wry dispatches from Vonnegut's years as a struggling writer slowly finding an audience and then dealing with sudden international fame in middle age; righteously angry letters of protest to local school boards that tried to ban his work; intimate remembrances penned to high school classmates, fellow veterans, friends, and family; and letters of commiseration and encouragement to such contemporaries as Gail Godwin, G nter Grass, and Bernard Malamud. Vonnegut's unmediated observations on science, art, and commerce prove to be just as inventive as any found in his novels--from a crackpot scheme for manufacturing "atomic" bow ties to a tongue-in-cheek proposal that publishers be allowed to trade authors like baseball players. ("Knopf, for example, might give John Updike's contract to Simon and Schuster, and receive Joan Didion's contract in return.") Taken together, these letters add considerable depth to our understanding of this one-of-a-kind literary icon, in both his public and private lives. Each letter brims with the mordant humor and openhearted humanism upon which he built his legend. And virtually every page contains a quotable nugget that will make its way into the permanent Vonnegut lexicon. - On a job he had as a young man: "Hell is running an elevator throughout eternity in a building with only six floors." - To a relative who calls him a "great literary figure" "I am an American fad--of a slightly higher order than the hula hoop." - To his daughter Nanny: "Most letters from a parent contain a parent's own lost dreams disguised as good advice." - To Norman Mailer: "I am cuter than you are." Sometimes biting and ironical, sometimes achingly sweet, and always alive with the unique point of view that made him the true cultural heir to Mark Twain, these letters comprise the autobiography Kurt Vonnegut never wrote. Praise for Kurt Vonnegut: Letters "Splendidly assembled . . . familiar, funny, cranky . . . chronicling Vonnegut's] life in real time."--Kurt Andersen, The New York Times Book Review " This collection is] by turns hilarious, heartbreaking and mundane. . . . Vonnegut himself is a near-perfect example of the same flawed, wonderful humanity that he loved and despaired over his entire life."--NPR "Congenial, whimsical and often insightful missives . . . one of Vonnegut's] very best."--Newsday "These letters display all the hallmarks of Vonnegut's fiction--smart, hilarious and heartbreaking."--The New York Times Book Review

With his trademark dry wit, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle is an inventive science fiction satire that preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon - and, worse still, surviving it. This Penguin Modern Classics edition includes an introduction by Benjamin Kunkel.Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to humanity. For he is the inventor of ice-nine, a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. Writer Jonah's search for his whereabouts leads him to Hoenikker's three eccentric children, to an island republic in the Caribbean where the absurd religion of Bokononism is practised, to love and to insanity. Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction is a frightening and funny satire on the end of the world and the madness of mankind.Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) was born in Indianapolis. During the Second World War he was a prisoner in Germany and present at the bombing of Dresden, an experience he recounted in his famous novel Slaughterhouse Five (1969). His first novel, Player Piano, was published in 1951 and since then he has written many novels, including The Sirens of Titan, Jailbird, Deadeye Dick, Galapagos and Hocus Pocus. If you enjoyed Cat's Cradle, you might like Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'One of the warmest, wisest, funniest voices to be found anywhere in fiction'Sam Leith, Daily Telegraph'A free-wheeling vehicle ... An unforgettable ride!'The New York Times'Vonnegut looked the world straight in the eye and never flinched'J.G. Ballard

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A never-before-seen collection of deeply personal love letters from Kurt Vonnegut to his first wife, Jane, compiled and edited by their daughter "If ever I do write anything of length--good or bad--it will be written with you in mind." Kurt Vonnegut's eldest daughter, Edith, was cleaning out her mother's attic when she stumbled upon a dusty, aged box. Inside, she discovered an unexpected treasure: more than two hundred love letters written by Kurt to Jane, spanning the early years of their relationship. The letters begin in 1941, after the former schoolmates reunited at age nineteen, sparked a passionate summer romance, and promised to keep in touch when they headed off to their respective colleges. And they did, through Jane's conscientious studying and Kurt's struggle to pass chemistry. The letters continue after Kurt dropped out and enlisted in the army in 1943, while Jane in turn graduated and worked for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C. They also detail Kurt's deployment to Europe in 1944, where he was taken prisoner of war and declared missing in action, and his eventual safe return home and the couple's marriage in 1945. Full of the humor and wit that we have come to associate with Kurt Vonnegut, the letters also reveal little-known private corners of his mind. Passionate and tender, they form an illuminating portrait of a young soldier's life in World War II as he attempts to come to grips with love and mortality. And they bring to light the origins of Vonnegut the writer, when Jane was the only person who believed in and supported him supported him, the young couple having no idea how celebrated he would become. A beautiful full-color collection of handwritten letters, notes, sketches, and comics, interspersed with Edith's insights and family memories, Love, Kurt is an intimate record of a young man growing into himself, a fascinating account of a writer finding his voice, and a moving testament to the life-altering experience of falling in love.

'Vonnegut looked the world straight in the eye and never flinched' J. G. BallardThis bitterly funny Cold War satire on the end of the world expresses our deepest fears of Armageddon, and has become a counter-culture classic.'A satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion' Jay McInerney'The closest thing we had to a Voltaire' Tom Wolfe'The time to read Vonnegut is just when you begin to suspect that the world is not what it appears to be. He is not only entertaining, he is electrocuting' The New York Times

From the author of Slaughterhouse 5. In Rabo Karabekian's fictional autobiography, Vonnegut creates an impeccably funny satirical piece, through the reflections of a seventy-one-year-old man.

Rudy Waltz hasn't had it easy. After accidentally committing manslaughter at the age of twelve, the traumas life continued to throw at him seemed almost inconsequential. Now fifty-four, an expat living in Haiti, he's reliving the harrowing moments of his life that have left him in his current disillusioned state. But perhaps his ancestors, among them a father who was an unwitting patron of Adolf Hitler, have predestined him for the mad life he's lead. In Deadeye Dick Vonnegut expertly probes the ties between generations, and questions the conventional notions of morality. 'Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer ... a zany but moral mad scientist' Time 'The master at his quirky, provocative best' Cosmopolitan

The ultimate Vonnegut: all 14 novels plus a selection of the best of his stories in a definitive collector's boxed set. The novels of Kurt Vonnegut defined a generation a remain among the most enduringly popular and influential works of the last century. Now, for the first time, they are available in a single collector's edition, featuring authoritative annotated texts. This boxed set includes four Library of America volumes: Novels & Stories 1950-1962 Player Piano / The Sirens of Titan / Mother Night Novels & Stories 1963-1973 Cat's Cradle / God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater / Slaughterhouse-Five / Breakfast of Champions Novels 1976-1985 Slapstick / Jailbird / Deadeye Dick / Galapagos Novels 1987-1997 Bluebeard / Hocus Pocus / Timequake LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

This collection of Vonnegutâ??s letters is the autobiography he never wrote â?? from the letter he posted home upon being freed from a German POW camp, to notes of advice to his children: â??Donâ??t let anybody tell you that smoking and boozing are bad for you.

Billy Pilgrim returns home from the Second World War only to be kidnapped by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who teach him that time is an eternal present

Una crisis financiera desestabiliza las potencias mundiales. Un virus infecta a la poblaci n. No es 2020: es Vonnegut siendo el escritor m s avanzado de su generaci n. Mientras el mundo est sumido en una crisis financiera sin precedentes, un selecto grupo de seres humanos que disfrutaban de un crucero naufragan y quedan atrapados en la isla de Santa Rosal a. Este aparente infortunio les librar , no obstante, del virus letal que, en todos los confines de la tierra excepto en aquella islita que ellos habitan, provoca la esterilidad. Tienen un mill n de a os para repoblar la tierra y hacerlo mejor, un reto evolutivo chiflado pero inexcusable. En esta novela inimitable y llena de humor, que homenajea al mism simo Darwin y lleva al extremo los preceptos de la ciencia ficci n, el gran maestro sat rico de la literatura anticip de forma casi prof tica el derrumbe socioecon mico y el terror pand mico que llegar a despu s. En ella observ el mundo de cerca y se al todo aquello que est terriblemente mal y duele, pero tambi n todo aquello que merece la pena salvar. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION A financial crisis destabilizes world powers. A virus infects the population. It is not 2020--this is Vonnegut being the most progressive writer of his generation. While the world is mired in an unprecedented financial crisis, a select group of people that were enjoying a cruise become cast aways, stranded in Santa Rosal a island. This apparent misfortune will save them, however, of the lethal virus that causes infertility in all corners of the earth, except for that small island where they live. They have a million years to repopulate Earth and make it better, an insane, yet inexcusable, evolutionary challenge. In this one-of-a-kind novel, filled with humor, a homage to Darwin himself, that takes to an extreme the statutes of science fiction, the great satirical literature master anticipated, almost prophetically, the socio-economic collapse and the pandemic horror that would come next. In this novel, he observed the world up close and identified everything that is terribly wrong and painful, but also what is worth saving.

Read Kurt Vonnegut's powerful masterpiece, which is as timely now as when it was first published.Billy Pilgrim – hapless barber's assistant, successful optometrist, alien abductee, senile widower and soldier – has become unstuck in time. Hiding in the basement of a slaughterhouse in Dresden, with the city and its inhabitants burning above him, he finds himself a survivor of one of the most deadly and destructive battles of the Second World War. But when, exactly? How did he get here? And how does he get out?Travel through time and space on the shoulders of Vonnegut himself. This is a book about war. Listen to what he has to say: it is of the utmost urgency.‘An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist’ New York Times Book ReviewThis series of war novels from Vintage Classics presents eight powerful stories about the horror and waste of war - each a passionate plea to prevent its repetition.

A beautiful hardback edition of one of the most funny, moving and brilliant novels of the twentieth century.'A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New York TimesBilly Pilgrim - hapless barber's assistant, successful optometrist, alien abductee, senile widower and soldier - has become unstuck in time.Hiding in the basement of a slaughterhouse in Dresden, with the city and its inhabitants burning above him, he finds himself a survivor of one of the most deadly and destructive battles of the Second World War.But when, exactly?How did he get here?And how does he get out?Travel through time and space on the shoulders of Vonnegut himself.This is a book about war.Listen to what he has to say: it is of the utmost urgency.'The great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves' George Saunders'A rare accomplishment... it is a graceful, ferociously humorous, sarcastic and ultimately compassionate parable about man's power for evil and his capacity for grace' Sunday TimesVintage Quarterbound Classics: Bound to be beautiful

Welcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fictionWhen Winston Niles Rumfoord flies his spaceship into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum he is converted into pure energy and only materializes when his waveforms intercept Earth or some other planet. As a result, he only gets home to Newport, Rhode Island, once every fifty-nine days and then only for an hour.But at least, as a consolation, he now knows everything that has ever happened and everything that ever will be. He knows, for instance, that his wife is going to Mars to mate with Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. He also knows that on Titan - one of Saturn's moons - is an alien from the planet Tralfamadore, who has been waiting 200,000 years for a spare part for his grounded spacecraft . . . A finalist for the 1960 Hugo Award, The Sirens of Titan was Vonnegut's second novel. It received wide acclaim, and played with ideas of free will and predestination, themes he continued to explore in his later works. In 2015, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.-'The Sirens of Titan is marvellous. It's so funny it made me want to cry' - Infinity Plus'A classic, ripe with wit and eloquence and a cascade of inventiveness' - Brian Aldiss 'His best book . . . He dares not only to ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it' - Esquire

50th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITIONAs a young man and a prisoner of war, Kurt Vonnegut witnessed the 1945 US fire-bombing of Dresden in Germany, which reduced the once proudly beautiful city to rubble and claimed the lives of thousands of its citizens. For many years, Kurt tried to write about Dresden but the words would not come.

-The complete short stories of Kurt Vonnegut---

Stuck in your feelings? You're not the only one. "Typical Cynical" is the first creation from breakout author Thor P. Doe. Explore the depths of 20th Century cynicism with three selections of short stories by author Kurt Vonnegut. Stories include: "The Big Trip Up Yonder", "2 B R 0 2 B", and "Harrison Bergeron". Thor P. Doe also includes a careful selection of delightful words from "A Cynic's Word Book" by Ambrose Bierce.