Palm Sunday_ An Autobiographical Collage - Kurt Vonnegut [0]
KURT VONNEGUT IS …
“UNIQUE … one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best.”
—DORIS LESSING,
The New York Times Book Review
“OUR FINEST BLACK-HUMORIST…. We laugh in self-defense.”
—The Atlantic Monthly
“AN UNIMITATIVE AND INIMITABLE SOCIAL SATIRIST.”
—Harper’s Magazine
“A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“A LAUGHING PROPHET OF DOOM.”
—The New York Times
BOOKS BY KURT VONNEGUT
Bluebeard
Breakfast of Champions
Cat’s Cradle
Deadeye Dick
Galápagos
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Jailbird,
Mother Night
Palm Sunday
Player Piano
The Sirens of Titan
Slapstick
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons
Welcome to the Monkey House
Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following material:
“An Account of the Ancestry of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., by an Ancient Friend of His Family” by John G. Rauch: Used by permission of William Rauch.
Excerpts from Indianapolis magazine used by permission.
“How to Write with Style” by Kurt Vonnegut: Reprinted by permission from International Paper Company’s “Power of the Printed Word” Program.
“Self-Interview” appeared originally in The Paris Review, Issue #69. Copyright 1977 by The Paris Review. Reprinted by permission of The Viking Press.
“Who in America Is Truly Happy?”: Reprinted from Politics Today, January 1979. Used by permission.
Review of SOMETHING HAPPENED by Joseph Heller: © 1974 by The New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.
“Introduction” to WRITE IF YOU GET WORK: THE BEST OF BOB AND RAY by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding: Used by permission of Random House, Inc.
“Class of ’57” by Harold Reid and Don Reid: © Copyright 1972 by House of Cash, Inc., Hendersonville, Tennessee 37075. Used by permission.
Viking Penguin, Inc. for “Louis-Ferdinand Céline” as the Introduction to the Penguin edition of CASTLE TO CASTLE, RIGADOON and NORTH by Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
“Dresden Revisited” was originally an introduction for the limited edition of SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE published by the Franklin Library and signed by the writer. The work is reprinted with the permission of the Franklin Library.
“Flowers on the Wall” by Lewis DeWitt: Copyright © 1965, 1966 by Southwind Music, Inc. Rights controlled by Unichappell Music, Inc. (Rightsong Music, Inc., Publisher). International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
Lines from “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg: Copyright © 1956, 1959 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books.
Acknowledgment is made to the following publications in whose pages these essays first appeared:
The New York Times for “Un-American Nonsense”; Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harían Ellison for “The Big Space Fuck”; and The Nation for “Mark Twain” and “Palm Sunday” as “Hypocrites You Always Have With You.”
For my cousins the de St. Andrés everywhere. Who has the castle now?
TABLE OF CONTENTS (BITS OF THE COLLAGE)
INTRODUCTION
1 THE FIRST AMENDMENT
“Dear Mr. McCarthy”—letter by KV to head of school committee in Drake, N.D., where his books were burned
“Un-American Nonsense”—essay for The New York Times by KV, about the banning of his books by the school committee of Island Trees, N.Y.
“God’s Law”—speech by KV at a fund raiser for the American Civil Liberties Union in Sands Point, N.Y.
“Dear Felix”—letter by KV to a Russian friend about the harassment of writers in the USSR
2 ROOTS
“An Account of the Ancestry of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., by an Ancient Friend of His Family”—formal essay by the late John G. Rauch of Indianapolis
3 WHEN I LOST MY INNOCENCE
“What I Liked about Cornell”—speech by KV to an annual banquet of The Cornell Daily Sun in Ithaca, N.Y.
“When I Lost My Innocence”—essay by KV for Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper
“I Am Embarrassed”—antinuke speech by KV at rally in Washington, D.C.
4 TRIAGE
“How to Write with Style”—essay by KV for a campaign by the International