Vonnegut in Fact

Vonnegut in Fact

The Public Spokesmanship of Personal Fiction

  • Author: Klinkowitz, Jerome
  • Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
  • ISBN: 9781570038747
  • eISBN Pdf: 9781611171273
  • eISBN Epub: 9781611171273
  • Place of publication:  South Carolina , United States
  • Year of digital publication: 2012
  • Month: June
  • Language: English

Insights into Vonnegut's extensive nonfiction as a key to understanding innovation in his novels

Vonnegut in Fact offers a thorough assessment of the artistry of Kurt Vonnegut, known not only as the best-selling author of Slaughterhouse-Five, Timequake, and a dozen other novels, but also as the most widely recognized public spokesperson among writers since Mark Twain. Jerome Klinkowitz traces the emergence of Vonnegut's nonfiction since the 1960s, when commentary and feature journalism replaced the rapidly dying short story market.

Offering close readings and insightful criticism of Vonnegut's three major works of nonfiction, his many uncollected pieces, and his unique manner of public speaking, Klinkowitz explains how Vonnegut's personal visions developed into a style of great public responsibility that mirrored the growth of his fiction. Klinkowitz views his subject as a gentle manipulator of popular forms and an extremely personable figure; what might seem radically innovative and even iconoclastic in his fiction becomes comfortably avuncular and familiarly American when followed to its roots in his public spokesmanship.

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication Page
  • Table of Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction The Private Person as Public Figure
  • Chapter One: Emerging from Anonymity
  • Chapter Two: Short-Story Salesmanship
  • Chapter Three: The Road to Wampeters
  • Chapter Four: Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons
  • Chapter Five: Palm Sunday
  • Chapter Six: Fates Worse than Death
  • Chapter Seven: A Public Preface for Personal Fiction
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index

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