The Short Fiction of Kurt Vonnegut - (Contributions to the Study of American Literature) by Peter Reed (Hardcover)

About the Book

Kurt Vonnegut's career as a novelist encompasses virtually the whole second half of the twentieth century, and his novels are among the most widely read in America. Yet Vonnegut enjoyed another successful career as a short story writer. His short fiction brought him much acclaim in the early years of his writing career and made him visible to a very large audience. His stories were illustrated by some of the best artists in the business and were featured prominently in leading magazines such as Collier's^ the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and Argosy. Commentary on Vonnegut has generally separated his career as a novelist from his career as a short story writer. This volume provides a detailed analysis of Vonnegut's short fiction and shows that his short stories are an integral part of his overall canon.

The short stories do not simply precede Vonnegut's novels. There is an extensive overlap of the publication of his novels and his shorter works. In writing short fiction, Vonnegut learned and practiced many of the skills and techniques that he employs in his novels. This volume begins by examining the relationship of the short fiction to the larger body of Vonnegut's writings. It then examines Vonnegut's earliest training as a writer, during his high school years and as a college journalist. The chapters that follow are then devoted to later periods in his life, the development of his short stories, and the recurrence of their techniques and content in Vonnegut's novels. The study concludes with a reassessment of the importance of the short story to Vonnegut's canon.

Book Synopsis

Kurt Vonnegut's career as a novelist encompasses virtually the whole second half of the twentieth century, and his novels are among the most widely read in America. Yet Vonnegut enjoyed another successful career as a short story writer. His short fiction brought him much acclaim in the early years of his writing career and made him visible to a very large audience. His stories were illustrated by some of the best artists in the business and were featured prominently in leading magazines such as Collier's^ the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, and Argosy. Commentary on Vonnegut has generally separated his career as a novelist from his career as a short story writer. This volume provides a detailed analysis of Vonnegut's short fiction and shows that his short stories are an integral part of his overall canon.

The short stories do not simply precede Vonnegut's novels. There is an extensive overlap of the publication of his novels and his shorter works. In writing short fiction, Vonnegut learned and practiced many of the skills and techniques that he employs in his novels. This volume begins by examining the relationship of the short fiction to the larger body of Vonnegut's writings. It then examines Vonnegut's earliest training as a writer, during his high school years and as a college journalist. The chapters that follow are then devoted to later periods in his life, the development of his short stories, and the recurrence of their techniques and content in Vonnegut's novels. The study concludes with a reassessment of the importance of the short story to Vonnegut's canon.

Review Quotes

.,."in addition to providing excellent close readings explains how in solving problems of narrative voice these materials find their proper place in the author's canon."-Rough Pages

?...in addition to providing excellent close readings explains how in solving problems of narrative voice these materials find their proper place in the author's canon.?-Rough Pages

..."in addition to providing excellent close readings explains how in solving problems of narrative voice these materials find their proper place in the author's canon."-Rough Pages

About the Author

PETER J. REED is Professor of English at the University of Minnesota. In 1972 he published the first book-length treatment of Vonnegut, Writers for the 'Seventies: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. He has contributed critical essays to several collections on Vonnegut, and his biographical sketches appear in such standard works as The Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, Dictionary of Literary Biography, ribner's American Writers, gill's Survey of American Literature, and Postmodern Fiction: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide. With Marc Leeds, he is the editor of The Vonnegut Chronicles: Interviews and Essays (Greenwood, 1996). Like Vonnegut, Reed is a survivor of aerial bombardment--his childhood home in London was destroyed by the Blitz.