New Releases by Kurt Vonnegut

Prepare to be transported to a dystopian future filled with thought-provoking ideas and moral dilemmas in "2BR02B," a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut. In this captivating narrative, Vonnegut explores the ethical implications of a world where immortality comes at a steep price. As you delve into the chilling reality of a society where population control is enforced through extreme measures, be prepared to confront questions of life, death, and the value of human existence. Vonnegut''s poignant prose and sharp wit shine a light on the darkest corners of human nature. But here''s the question that lingers in the shadows: What if the pursuit of immortality leads to the loss of humanity itself? Could Vonnegut''s cautionary tale serve as a mirror reflecting the consequences of unchecked technological advancement and societal obsession with longevity? Engage with Vonnegut''s thought-provoking narrative as he challenges readers to reconsider the meaning of life and the ethics of immortality. Through his vivid characters and compelling storyline, Vonnegut invites us to ponder the moral complexities of a future where death is a choice. Are you ready to confront the ethical dilemmas of a world where life and death hang in the balance? Immerse yourself in the chilling world of "2BR02B," where the boundaries between life and death blur, and the consequences of technological progress are laid bare. Let Vonnegut''s powerful storytelling provoke thought and inspire reflection on the nature of existence. Here''s your invitation to explore the provocative ideas of Kurt Vonnegut''s "2BR02B." Will you accept the challenge and venture into this gripping science fiction tale? Don''t miss out on the opportunity to experience this thought-provoking short story. Purchase your copy of "2BR02B" by Kurt Vonnegut now, and let the haunting narrative captivate your imagination and leave you pondering long after you turn the final page.

A never-before-seen collection of deeply personal love letters from Kurt Vonnegut to his first wife, Jane, compiled and edited by their daughter “A glimpse into the mind of a writer finding his voice.”—The Washington Post “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.

The first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great anti-war books. An American classic and one of the world’s seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North (How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Albert Monteys (Universe!). Listen: Billy Pilgrim has... ...read Kilgore Trout ...opened a successful optometry business ...built a loving family ...witnessed the firebombing of Dresden ...traveled to the planet Tralfamadore ...met Kurt Vonnegut ...come unstuck in time. Billy Pilgrim’s journey is at once a farcical look at the horror and tragedy of war where children are placed on the frontlines and die (so it goes), and a moving examination of what it means to be fallibly human.

Billy Pilgrim - hapless barber''s assistant, successful optometrist, alien abductee, senile widower and soldier - has become unstuck in time. ''An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist'' New York Times Book Review Hiding in the basement of a slaughterhouse in Dresden, with the city and its inhabitants burning above him, Billy 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, author of Lincoln in the Bardo

“Richly and often pertinently funny [with] a sure instinct for the carefully considered irrelevance . . . a great deal of incidental hilarity [and] inspired idiocy.”—The New York Times Happy Birthday Wanda June was Kurt Vonnegut’s first play, which premiered in New York in 1970 and was then adapted into a film in 1971. It is a darkly humorous and searing examination of the excesses of capitalism, patriotism, toxic masculinity, and American culture in the post-Vietnam War era. Featuring behind-the-scenes photographs from the original stage production, this play captures Vonnegut’s brilliantly distinct perspective unlike we have ever seen it before. “A great artist.”—The Cincinnati Enquirer

Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons is a rare opportunity to experience Kurt Vonnegut speaking in his own voice about his own life, his views of the world, his writing, and the writing of others. An indignant, outrageous, witty, deeply felt collection of reviews, essays, and speeches, this is a window not only into Vonnegut’s mind but also into his heart. “A book filled with madness and truth and absurdity and self-revelation . . . [Vonnegut is] a great cosmic comedian and rattler of human skeletons, an idealist disguised as a pessimist.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch Includes the following essays, speeches, and works: “Science Fiction” “Brief Encounters on the Inland Waterway” “Hello, Star Vega” “Teaching the Unteachable” “Yes, We Have No Nirvanas” “Fortitude” “‘There’s a Maniac Loose Out There’” “Excelsior! We’re Going to the Moon! Excelsior!” “Address to the American Physical Society” “Good Missiles, Good Manners, Good Night” “Why They Read Hesse” “Oversexed in Indianapolis” “The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky” “Biafra: A People Betrayed” “Address to Graduating Class at Bennington College, 1970” “Torture and Blubber” “Address to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1971” “Reflections on my Own Death” “In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself” “Thinking Unthinkable, Speaking Unspeakable” “Address at Rededication of Wheaton College Library, 1973” “Invite Rita Rait to America!” “Address to P.E.N. Conference in Stockholm, 1973” “A Political Disease” “Playboy Interview”

“A rich, generous book about writing and reading and Kurt Vonnegut as writer, teacher, and friend . . . Every page brings pleasure and insight.”—Gail Godwin, New York Times bestselling author Here is an entirely new side of Kurt Vonnegut, Vonnegut as a teacher of writing. Of course he’s given us glimpses before, with aphorisms and short essays and articles and in his speeches. But never before has an entire book been devoted to Kurt Vonnegut the teacher. Here is pretty much everything Vonnegut ever said or wrote having to do with the writing art and craft, altogether a healing, a nourishing expedition. His former student, Suzanne McConnell, has outfitted us for the journey, and in these 37 chapters covers the waterfront of how one American writer brought himself to the pinnacle of the writing art, and we can all benefit as a result. Kurt Vonnegut was one of the few grandmasters of American literature, whose novels continue to influence new generations about the ways in which our imaginations can help us to live. Few aspects of his contribution have not been plumbed—fourteen novels, collections of his speeches, his essays, his letters, his plays—so this fresh view of him is a bonanza for writers and readers and Vonnegut fans everywhere. “Part homage, part memoir, and a 100% guide to making art with words, Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style is a simply mesmerizing book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough!”—Andre Dubus III, #1 New York Times bestselling author “The blend of memory, fact, keen observation, spellbinding descriptiveness and zany characters that populated Vonnegut’s work is on full display here.”—James McBride, National Book Award-winning author

Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier captured by the Germans, witnesses firebombing and destruction in Dresden. Launched in November, Dell''s Kurt Vonnegut reissue program continues with one of the world''s great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim''s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

2 B R 0 2 B is a science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, originally published in the digest magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1962, and collected in Vonnegut''s Bagombo Snuff Box (1999). The title is pronounced "2 B R naught 2 B", referencing the famous phrase "to be, or not to be" from William Shakespeare''s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. In this story, the title refers to the telephone number one dials to schedule an assisted suicide with the Federal Bureau of Termination. Vonnegut''s 1965 novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater describes a story by this name, attributing it to his recurring character Kilgore Trout, although the plot summary given is closer in nature to the eponymous tale from his short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House. The setting is a society in which aging has been cured, individuals have indefinite lifespans, and population control is used to limit the population of the United States to forty million. This is maintained through a combination of infanticide and government-assisted suicide - in short, in order for someone to be born, someone must first volunteer to die. As a result, births are few and far between, and deaths occur primarily by accident.

Sun Moon Star is the story of the birth of Jesus--as told by Kurt Vonnegut. This children''s book takes the newborn Jesus'' perspective, offering beautiful and insightful descriptions of the world from someone newly born into it. In this book, we follow Jesus and meet the people most important to his life--presented in new and surprising ways. A powerful departure from Vonnegut''s more adult work, Sun Moon Star gives readers a rare glimpse of the writer''s talent in a format that''s unique and unexpected. Originally published in 1980, the book is long out of print, but is available as an E-book.

"Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller - these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the world''s great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim''s odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know."

"Everything was perfectly swell. There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars. All diseases were conquered. So was old age." So begins ''2 B R 0 2 B'', a clever short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, the author of far more famous works such as Slaughterhouse Five, Cat''s Cradle, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and many others. The story first appeared in the January 1962 issue of the pulp sci-fi magazine Worlds of If. Its modest utopian beginnings quickly open up to an underlying dystopia: the only way to maintain the perfect balance on this seemingly perfect far-future Earth is to limit the population to precisely forty million souls. But old age has been beaten. To maintain eternal happiness, should birth control fail, one must acquiesce to either infanticide or suicide - choose your pleasure. Those few adults who decide they want to die are encouraged to call the Federal Bureau of Termination''s hotline at 2 B R 0 2 B (pronounced 2 B or naught 2 B) and make an appointment for euthanasia, thus opening the door for the birth of a new human. No one is forced into death, unless you count social pressure, although there is plenty of that in a society where the most admired man on the planet is Dr Hitz, "responsible for setting up the very first gas chamber in Chicago."

A word to the reader Here is a brand new Russian translation of the novel by American writer Kurt Vonnegut " Cat''s Cradle ." A topic that has affected the author in his book, has always been an unhealthy interest . Destruction of civilization . Repeatedly one has predicted the end of the world, even called the exact dates . Obviously, we originally were laid out in the instinct of destruction, self-destruction. For those who have not read Vonnegut''s novel in the original or the old translation in Russian, we specify, that the author''s lampoon was brought in his book to the very end. Eventually he turned the planet into an ice desert. Imagine ice, where you can walk barefoot, feeling the warm touch of it. However, the so-called ice-nine represented itself mortal danger . But you can look about it for yourself when you will buy this book . The main thing is, in whose hands could get, and finally got, such a substance which destroys everything - ice-nine. During the Soviet era in Russia were banned many writers . Kurt Vonnegut was not among them . But now, if you take up the old translation of the novel " Cat''s Cradle " and compare it with the original, you can note that may be the translator ( Rita Rite- Kovalyeva ) or publishers worked with a sharp instrument in their hands, cutting and sharpening all direct "corners," sounded dissonant or incompatible with the Soviet ideology . Thus, the names of Karl Marx, Stalin and even Mao Zedong disappeared from the pages of the old translation, the Communists turned into monarchists and a Soviet spy of the Ukrainian ballet Zinka became simply: " Zika from a foreign band ." Should pay attention to the language style of the author. It is unusual . To move the similar style in Russian language is practically impossible, but the translator R. Rite- Kovalyeva tried to do it. Nobody will blame her for it. The translation, which is offered here, executed, how it worked, according to the canons of the Russian literary language . PONY Michurinsk

Gramps Ford, his chin resting on his hands, his hands on the crook of his cane, was staring irascibly at the five-foot television screen that dominated the room. On the screen, a news commentator was summarizing the day''s happenings. Every thirty seconds or so, Gramps would jab the floor with his cane-tip and shout, "Hell, we did that a hundred years ago!"Emerald and Lou, coming in from the balcony, where they had been seeking that 2185 A.D. rarity—privacy—were obliged to take seats in the back row, behind Lou''s father and mother, brother and sister-in-law, son and daughter-in-law, grandson and wife, granddaughter and husband, great-grandson and wife, nephew and wife, grandnephew and wife, great-grandniece and husband, great-grandnephew and wife—and, of course, Gramps, who was in front of everybody.

"Chiefly consists of selected graduation speeches given by Vonnegut at various educational institutions"--

Everything was perfectly swell. There were no prisons, no slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars. All diseases were conquered. So was old age. Death, barring accidents, was an adventure for volunteers. The population of the United States was stabilized at forty-million souls. One bright morning in the Chicago Lying-in Hospital, a man named Edward K. Wehling, Jr., waited for his wife to give birth. He was the only man waiting. Not many people were born a day any more.

2BR02B is a satiric short story that imagines life & death in a future world where aging has been "cured" & population control is mandated and administered by the government.

A posthumous double volume of the influential author''s first and last written works, published to coincide with the 90th anniversary of his birth, includes the bitter satire "Basic training" and the unfinished final novel "If God were alive today".

"Canary in a Cathouse" is a collection of twelve short stories by Kurt Vonnegut which was first published in 1961.Contents:Report on the Barnhouse EffectAll The Kings HorsesD.P.The Manned MissilesThe Euphio QuestionMore Stately MansionsThe Foster PortfolioDeer in the WorksHal Irwin''s Magic LampTom Edison''s Shaggy DogUnready To WearTomorrow and TomorrowFuji Books'' edition of "Canary In A Cat House" contains supplementary texts:2 B R 0 2 B, By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.Big Trip Up Yonder, By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.A Few Selected Quotes Of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

A previously unpublished collection of six brief fiction stories, one non-fiction essay, and an unfinished science-fiction short story.

One of the great American iconoclasts holds forth on politics, war, books and writers, and his personal life in a series of conversations—including his last published interview. During his long career Kurt Vonnegut won international praise for his novels, plays, and essays. In this new anthology of conversations with Vonnegut—which collects interviews from throughout his career—we learn much about what drove Vonnegut to write and how he viewed his work at the end. From Kurt Vonnegut''s Last Interview Is there another book in you, by chance? No. Look, I’m 84 years old. Writers of fiction have usually done their best work by the time they’re 45. Chess masters are through when they’re 35, and so are baseball players. There are plenty of other people writing. Let them do it. So what’s the old man’s game, then? My country is in ruins. So I’m a fish in a poisoned fishbowl. I’m mostly just heartsick about this. There should have been hope. This should have been a great country. But we are despised all over the world now. I was hoping to build a country and add to its literature. That’s why I served in World War II, and that’s why I wrote books. When someone reads one of your books, what would you like them to take from the experience? Well, I’d like the guy—or the girl, of course—to put the book down and think, “This is the greatest man who ever lived.”

From Slapstick''s "Turkey Farm" to Slaughterhouse-Five''s eternity in a Tralfamadorean zoo cage with Montana Wildhack, the question of the afterlife never left Kurt Vonnegut''s mind. In God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian, Vonnegut skips back and forth between life and the Afterlife as if the difference between them were rather slight. In thirty odd "interviews," Vonnegut trips down "the blue tunnel to the pearly gates" in the guise of a roving reporter for public radio, conducting interviews: with Salvatore Biagini, a retired construction worker who died of a heart attack while rescuing his schnauzer from a pit bull, with John Brown, still smoldering 140 years after his death by hanging, with William Shakespeare, who rubs Vonnegut the wrong way, and with socialist and labor leader Eugene Victor Debs, one of Vonnegut''s personal heroes. What began as a series of ninety-second radio interludes for WNYC, New York City''s public radio station, evolved into this provocative collection of musings about who and what we live for, and how much it all matters in the end. From the original portrait by his friend Jules Feiffer that graces the cover, to a final entry from Kilgore Trout, God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian remains a joy.

“[Kurt Vonnegut] has never been more satirically on-target. . . . Nothing is spared.”—People Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in government—and in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from Harvard to the Nixon White House to the penitentiary as Watergate’s least known co-conspirator. But the humor turns dark when Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and calculated greed of the mighty, giving a razor-sharp edge to an unforgettable portrait of power and politics in our times. Praise for Jailbird “[Vonnegut] is our strongest writer . . . the most stubbornly imaginative.”—John Irving “A gem . . . a mature, imaginative novel—possibly the best he has written . . . Jailbird is a guided tour de force of America. Take it!”—Playboy “A profoundly humane comedy . . . Jailbird definitely mounts up on angelic wings—in its speed, in its sparkle, and in its high-flying intent.”—Chicago Tribune Book World “Joyously inventive . . . gleams with the loony magic Vonnegut alone can achieve.”—Cosmopolitan “Vonnegut is our great apocalyptic writer, the closest thing we’ve had to a prophet since . . . Lenny Bruce.”—Chicago Sun-Times “Vonnegut at his impressive best. . . . His imaginative leaps alone . . . are worth the price of admission. . . . His far-reaching metaphysical and cultural concerns . . . are ultimately serious and worth our contemplation.”—The Washington Post

Look at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished short stories from one of the most original writers in all of American fiction. In this series of perfectly rendered vignettes, written just as he was starting to find his comic voice, Kurt Vonnegut paints a warm, wise, and often funny portrait of life in post–World War II America—a world where squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence. How do you plan the perfect murder? Belly up to the bar with Vonnegut''s narrator and listen as a self-proclaimed "murder counselor" outlines his fool-proof program for getting rid of your enemies—and assuring yourself a guaranteed annuity income for life. Look at the Birdie and the thirteen other never-before-published pieces that comprise Look at the Birdie serve as an unexpected gift for devoted readers who thought that Kurt Vonnegut''s unique voice had been stilled forever—and provide a terrific introduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet to experience his genius.

“Ranks with Vonnegut’s best and goes one step beyond . . . joyous, soaring fiction.”—The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves. Praise for Bluebeard “Vonnegut is at his edifying best.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “The quicksilver mind of Vonnegut is at it again. . . . He displays all his talents—satire, irony, ridicule, slapstick, and even a shaggy dog story of epic proportions.”—The Cincinnati Post “[Kurt Vonnegut is] a voice you can trust to keep poking holes in the social fabric.”—San Francisco Chronicle “It has the qualities of classic Bosch and Slaughterhouse Vonnegut. . . . Bluebeard is uncommonly feisty.”—USA Today “Is Bluebeard good? Yes! . . . This is vintage Vonnegut—good wine from his best grapes.”—The Detroit News “A joyride . . . Vonnegut is more fascinated and puzzled than angered by the human stupidities and contradictions he discerns so keenly. So hop in his rumble seat. As you whiz along, what you observe may provide some new perspectives.”—Kansas City Star

Presents a collection of critical essays about Kurt Vonnegut''s Slaughterhouse-five.

The New York Times bestseller from the author of Slaughterhouse-Five—a “gripping” posthumous collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s previously unpublished work on the subject of war and peace. A fitting tribute to a literary legend and a profoundly humane humorist, Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of twelve previously unpublished writings. Imbued with Vonnegut''s trademark rueful humor and outraged moral sense, the pieces range from a letter written by Vonnegut to his family in 1945, informing them that he''d been taken prisoner by the Germans, to his last speech, delivered after his death by his son Mark, who provides a warmly personal introduction to the collection. Taken together, these pieces provide fresh insight into Vonnegut''s enduring literary genius and reinforce his ongoing moral relevance in today’s world. Includes an Introduction by Mark Vonnegut

Twelve previously unpublished writings on war and peace include such pieces as an essay on the destruction of Dresden, a story about the first-meal fantasies of three soldiers, and a meditation on the impossibility of shielding children from the temptations of violence.

“[Kurt Vonnegut] is either the funniest serious writer around or the most serious funny writer.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In this self-portrait by an American genius, Kurt Vonnegut writes with beguiling wit and poignant wisdom about his favorite comedians, country music, a dead friend, a dead marriage, and various cockamamie aspects of his all-too-human journey through life. This is a work that resonates with Vonnegut’s singular voice: the magic sound of a born storyteller mesmerizing us with truth. “Vonnegut is at the top of his form, and it is wonderful.”—Newsday