Portal:Kurt Vonnegut
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Introduction
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (/ˈvɒnəɡət/; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, Vonnegut published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of non-fiction. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).
Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Vonnegut attended Cornell University but dropped out in January 1943 and enlisted in the United States Army. As part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) and the University of Tennessee. He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II and was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was interned in Dresden and survived the Allied bombing of the city by taking refuge in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. After the war, Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, with whom he had three children. He later adopted his sister's three sons, after she died of cancer and her husband was killed in a train accident.
Selected general articles
- Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969) is a science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut about the World War II experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim, from his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant, to postwar and early years. It is generally recognized as Vonnegut's most influential and popular work. A central event is Pilgrim's surviving the Allies' firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner-of-war. This was an event in Vonnegut's own life, and the novel is considered semi-autobiographical. Read more...
- Look at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, released on October 20, 2009. It is the second posthumously published Kurt Vonnegut book, the first being Armageddon in Retrospect. Read more...
- While Mortals Sleep is a collection of sixteen previously unpublished short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, released on January 25, 2011. It is the third posthumously published Kurt Vonnegut book, the first being Armageddon in Retrospect, the second being Look at the Birdie. The book begins with a foreword by Dave Eggers. Illustrations by Vonnegut himself appear throughout. Read more...
- Bluebeard, the Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian (1916–1988) is a 1987 novel by best-selling author Kurt Vonnegut. It is told as a first person narrative and describes the late years of fictional Abstract Expressionist painter Rabo Karabekian, who first appeared as a minor character in Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions (1973). Circumstances of the novel bear rough resemblance to the fairy tale of Bluebeard popularized by Charles Perrault. Karabekian mentions this relationship once in the novel. Read more...
- Mother Night is a 1996 American romantic war film based on Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 novel of the same name.
Nick Nolte stars as Howard W. Campbell, Jr., an American who moves with his family to Germany after World War I and goes on to become a successful German language playwright. As World War II looms, Campbell meets a man who claims to be from the United States Department of War, and is recruited to spy for the U.S., transmitting Nazi propaganda containing hidden messages that can only be decoded by Allied intelligence. After the war, Campbell relocates to New York City, where he attempts to live in obscurity. Since the Americans keep his true war time role a closely guarded secret, Campbell is forced to live under an assumed identity. The film is narrated by Campbell, through a series of flashbacks, as he sits in a jail cell in Israel, writing his memoirs, and awaiting trial for war crimes. Read more... - Cat's Cradle is a science fiction novel by American writer Kurt Vonnegut, first published in 1963. His fourth novel, it explores issues of science, technology, and religion, satirizing the arms race and many other targets along the way. After turning down his original thesis in 1947, the University of Chicago awarded Vonnegut his master's degree in anthropology in 1971 for Cat's Cradle.
The title of the book derives from the string game "cat's cradle". Early in the book, the character Felix Hoenikker (a fictional co-inventor of the atom bomb) was playing cat's cradle when the bomb was dropped, and the game is later referred to by his son, Newton Hoenikker. Read more... - Bokononism (/ˈboʊkoʊnɒnˌɪzəm/) is a fictitious religion invented by Kurt Vonnegut and practiced by many of the characters in his novel Cat's Cradle. Many of the sacred texts of Bokononism were written in the form of calypsos.
Bokononism is based on the concept of foma, which are defined as harmless untruths. A foundation of Bokononism is that the religion, including its texts, is formed entirely of lies; however, one who believes and adheres to these lies will have peace of mind, and perhaps live a good life. The religion's bible, The Books of Bokonon, begins: "Don't be a fool! Close this book at once! It is nothing but foma! All of the true things that I am about to tell you are shameless lies." The primary tenet of Bokononism is to "Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." Read more... - Ice-nine is a fictional material that appears in Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle. Ice-nine is described as a polymorph of water which instead of melting at 0 °C (32 °F), melts at 45.8 °C (114.4 °F). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water below 45.8 °C, it acts as a seed crystal and causes the solidification of the entire body of water, which quickly crystallizes as more ice-nine. As people are mostly water, ice-nine kills nearly instantly when ingested or brought into contact with soft tissues exposed to the bloodstream, such as the eyes or tongue.
In the story, it is invented by Dr. Felix Hoenikker and developed by the Manhattan Project in order for the Marines to no longer need to deal with mud. The project is abandoned when it becomes clear that any quantity of it would have the power to destroy all life on earth. A global catastrophe involving freezing the world's oceans with ice-nine is used as a plot device in Vonnegut's novel. Read more... - If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young (Seven Stories Press) is a 2013 collection of nine commencement speeches from Kurt Vonnegut, selected and introduced by Dan Wakefield.
After the publication of his novel Slaughterhouse-Five brought him worldwide acclaim in 1969, Kurt Vonnegut became one of America's most popular graduation speakers. There were years when public speaking was Vonnegut's main source of income. "We are performing animals," he used to say somewhat sardonically. In these speeches Vonnegut jokes, entertains, inspires, and conveys something of the momentousness of life. Read more... - The RAMJAC Corporation is a fictional multinational conglomerate, or megacorp, featured in several novels by Kurt Vonnegut. In Jailbird, the company at its height owns 19 percent of the United States, twice as large as the next largest conglomerate in the "Free World". Copyrights on Vonnegut's later books are also held by RAMJAC, much like Isaac Asimov's later copyrights are held by Nightfall, Inc.
According to Jailbird, RAMJAC was established by Jack Graham, a mining engineer from West Virginia, and then passed on to his widow, known to the world as Mrs. Jack Graham (in reality the former Mary Kathleen O'Looney, the ex-lover of the book's narrator, Walter F. Starbuck). Mrs. Graham ordered her surrogates to "acquire, acquire, acquire", instructions which eventually produced the conglomerate's vast holdings. Two years after her death (her will being concealed by Starbuck for that time), it was discovered that she had transferred ownership of RAMJAC to the "people of the United States", as part of a misguided attempt to bring about widespread state ownership – Mrs. Graham had been a Communist since college. The U.S. government immediately began selling off RAMJAC's assets. Read more... - Rabo Karabekian is a fictional character and the narrator and protagonist of the 1987 novel Bluebeard by American author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Read more...
- Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) is a collection of essays, reviews, short travel accounts, and human interest stories written by Kurt Vonnegut from c. 1966–1974. Read more...
- Jill Krementz (born February 19, 1940) is a well known photographer and author. She has published 31 books, mostly of photography and children's books.
Krementz grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, and moved to New York City in her late teens. In 1961 she received a Nikon camera as a twenty-first birthday present, and continued to build a career as a photographer and photojournalist. In the 1960s she worked as a photographer for the New York Herald-Tribune. Her color photography of the "March on the Pentagon" was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. In 1965, she spent a year taking photographs in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Her photojournalist works have appeared in the New York Observer. Read more... - Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of short stories and essays about war and peace written by Kurt Vonnegut. It is the first posthumous collection of his previously unpublished writings. The book includes an introduction by Mark Vonnegut, a letter from Kurt to his family about his experiences as an American prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, and the fire-bombing of Dresden. Like many of Vonnegut's other books, Armageddon in Retrospect is laden with handwritten quotations and rough drawings by the author. Read more...
- Galápagos is the eleventh novel written by American author Kurt Vonnegut. The novel questions the merit of the human brain from an evolutionary perspective. The title is both a reference to the islands on which part of the story plays out, and a tribute to Charles Darwin on whose theory Vonnegut relies to reach his own conclusions. It was first published in 1985 by Delacorte Press. Read more...
- Slaughterhouse-Five is a 1972 science fiction film based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same name about a writer who tells a story in random order of how he was a soldier in World War II and was abducted by aliens. The screenplay is by Stephen Geller and the film was directed by George Roy Hill. It stars Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine, and features Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, Holly Near, and Perry King. The scenes set in Dresden were filmed in Prague. The other scenes were filmed in Minnesota.
Vonnegut wrote about the film soon after its release, in his preface to Between Time and Timbuktu:
:"I love George Roy Hill and Universal Pictures, who made a flawless translation of my novel Slaughterhouse-Five to the silver screen ... I drool and cackle every time I watch that film, because it is so harmonious with what I felt when I wrote the book." Read more... - Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is a 1979 musical that marked the first collaboration of composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman. Based on Kurt Vonnegut's 1965 novel of the same name, the musical tells the story of Eliot Rosewater, a millionaire who develops a social conscience and creates a foundation to improve the lives of the citizens of an impoverished Indiana town.
The musical had a 12-performance showcase run in May 1979 and transferred to the Entermedia Theatre Off-Broadway, where it opened on October 14, 1979 and played for 49 performances. Directed by Ashman, the production featured Frederick Coffin (Eliot Rosewater), Janie Sell (Sylvia Rosewater), and Jonathan Hadary (Norman Mushari). Read more... - Kurt Vonnegut Sr. (November 24, 1884 – October 1, 1957) was an American architect and architectural lecturer active in early- to mid-twentieth-century Indianapolis, Indiana. A member of the American Institute of Architects, he was partner in the firms of Vonnegut & Bohn, Vonnegut, Bohn & Mueller, and Vonnegut, Wright, and Yeager. He designed several churches, banks, and became the inhouse architect for Indiana Bell and Hooks Drug stores (prior to World War II), practicing extensively in the Art Deco style. He was the father of chemist Bernard Vonnegut and author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Read more...
- 2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be is a 2016 Canadian short science fiction film directed by Marco Checa Garcia and based on the short story "2 B R 0 2 B" by Kurt Vonnegut. The film was an international collaboration over nearly three years, with additional crew in Sydney, London, Mexico, and the Netherlands. The film features a cameo voice role by veteran actor and The X-Files star William B. Davis. The film's sound was designed by BAFTA-winner Martin Cantwell. Read more...
- Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. In Vonnegut's work, Trout is a notably unsuccessful author of paperback science fiction novels.
Trout was inspired by author Theodore Sturgeon (Vonnegut's colleague in the genre of science fiction—Vonnegut was amused by the notion of a person with the name of a fish, Sturgeon, hence Trout), although Trout's consistent presence in Vonnegut's works has also led critics to view him as the author's own alter ego. Neither Sturgeon nor Vonnegut was yet a successful writer when the two became friends. Read more...
The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library is dedicated to championing the literary, artistic, and cultural contributions of the late writer, artist and Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.. It opened in January 2011 and is located in the Emelie Building, a structure on the National Register of Historical Places at 340 North Senate Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana. The library serves as a cultural and educational resource facility, museum, art gallery and reading room. It supports language and visual arts education through programs and outreach activities with other local arts organizations to foster a strong arts network for both the local and national community.
One of the goals for the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library is to help tourism to Indianapolis. Tourism officials from the city look at the library as a new attraction and reason for people to visit. The library is one of several efforts supported by the city and institutions such as the Lilly Endowment and Ball State University to expand the city's cultural activities, alongside the Indianapolis Museum of Art and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. The Lilly Endowment Inc. granted the library a $50,000 grant and the funds will be used, in part, to provide for a citywide festival planned for 2013. Read more...- Fortitude was written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1968. The brief [19 page] play relates to the issues of robotics and the ethical dilemmas of the "cyborg's rights." It was featured in the anthology, Human-Machines: An Anthology of Stories About Cyborgs. The story was also featured in the 1991 made-for-cable-TV anthology Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House. Read more...
- Billy Pilgrim is a fictional character and protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five, who has appeared in adaptations of the novel for film and the stage. Billy Pilgrim was based on Vonnegut's comrade-in-arms Edward R. Crone, Jr. Read more...
- Harrison Bergeron is a 1995 cable science fiction television movie film loosely adapted from Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 short story of the same name. It was produced for Showtime and first screened on August 13, 1995. It was released to VHS in 1998. Read more...
- A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism (created by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel Cat's Cradle), is defined as a "false karass". That is, it is a group of people who affect a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual association is meaningless.[vague]
Charles J. Shields's 2011 And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life quotes the novelist, who wrote[where?] that a "granfalloon is a proud and meaningless collection of human beings...." That biography also cites Hoosiers as "one of [Vonnegut's] favorite examples" of what the term refers to. Read more... - Timequake is a semi-autobiographical work by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. published in 1997. Marketed as a novel, the book was described as a "stew" by Vonnegut, in which summarizes a novel he had been struggling with for a number of years. Read more...
- Slapstick of Another Kind is a 1984 American comic science fiction film starring Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn and Marty Feldman. It was filmed in 1982, and released in March 1984 by both The S. Paul Company/Serendipity Entertainment Releasing Company and International Film Marketing. The film was written and directed by Steven Paul and is based on the novel Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. Read more...
- 2081 is a 2009 short science fiction film which premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 29, 2009. It is directed and written by Chandler Tuttle, based on the 1961 short story "Harrison Bergeron" by author Kurt Vonnegut. The cast is led by James Cosmo, Julie Hagerty, and Armie Hammer. The story paints a picture through the use of hyperbole of a future in which a powerful, dictatorial government goes to extreme measures to ensure that absolute equality exists between all individuals. Read more...
- Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a science fiction novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut. Written in 1976, it depicts Vonnegut's views of loneliness, both on an individual and social scale. Read more...
- Bernard Vonnegut (August 29, 1914 – April 25, 1997) was an American atmospheric scientist credited with discovering that silver iodide could be used effectively in cloud seeding to produce snow and rain. He was the older brother of American novelist Kurt Vonnegut. Read more...
Bernard Vonnegut I, WAA, FAIA, (August 8, 1855 – August 7, 1908) was an American lecturer and architect active in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Indiana. He was a co-founder of the locally renowned Indianapolis architectural firm of Vonnegut and Bohn, and was active in a range of residential, religious, institutional, civic, and commercial commissions. He is the namesake and grandfather of scientist Bernard Vonnegut, father of the architect Kurt Vonnegut Sr., and grandfather of author Kurt Vonnegut. Read more...
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Selected images
A large painting of Vonnegut on Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, blocks away from the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and the Rathskellar, which was designed by his family's architecture firm.
Portrait of Vonnegut in U.S. Army uniform between 1943 and 1945
Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis
Vonnegut in his 1940 Shortridge High School yearbook
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