News & Reviews

WORD: Library of America announces new Kurt Vonnegut collection includes three novels
Edited Press Release

The Library of America announced it has compiled a new collection by the late Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), who is widely considered one of America’s greatest writers. “Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1950-1962” includes all three of his early novels and six classic science fiction stories in a hard cover edited by Sidney Offit.

The 834-page book’s novels include the following three Vonnegut classics:

Vonnegut’s first novel, "Player Piano," is the story of Dr. Paul Proteus, chief engineer at the Ilium Works. Ill at ease with himself and his changing times, Proteus must choose sides in a looming civil war that threatens the brave new world he has helped to create. A witty satire on the culture of General Electric headquarters (where Vonnegut once worked as a publicist), Player Piano is a profound meditation on the dignity and necessity of work.

Set on Earth, Mars, Mercury, and the moons of Saturn, "The Sirens of Titan" is a vertiginous ride down a funnel in space-time with a trio of stuffed shirts spoiling for their pratfalls: Winston Niles Rumfoord, a patrician New Englander and paragon of style; his beautiful touch-me-not wife, Beatrice; and Malachi Constant, the world’s luckiest, wealthiest man. Are they really what they imagine themselves to be, the perfected products of a benevolent universe? Or does somebody up there despise them? Only Salo, the gentleman-robot from the planet Tralfamadore, knows for sure.

In 1961 a German American named Howard W. Campbell, Jr. — the Tokyo Rose of the Third Reich — is discovered in Manhattan by a team of Nazi hunters and brought to Jerusalem to stand trial. "Mother Night" presents Campbell’s prison-cell confessions, revealing him to be a double agent who infiltrated the highest echelons of the Nazi propaganda ministry in order to broadcast intelligence to the Allies. But as he awaits his date with justice, Campbell faces an even more rigorous trial in the court of his own conscience.

The hardcover of Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1950-1962 is available now at bookstores across the USA, and at the LOA Web Store and Amazon, among other online retailers.

The Library of America is an award-winning nonprofit publisher dedicated to preserving America’s best writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. For more information check out the LOA website.

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