Kurt Vonnegut Doll, photo courtesy of Uneek Doll Designs

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), a World War II veteran of the United States Army and humanist, was one of the most popular and controversial social commentary writers of the 20th century. His career publishing books spanned approximately 50 years.

If you click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3ikvCT3858, you will see the author talking about his best-selling science fiction novel, Cat’s Cradle.

Another best-selling book by Kurt Vonnegut is Slaughterhouse-Five, based on his time as a Prisoner of War tasked with gathering up and burning the remains of the dead after a bombing.

Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library

The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library is in his hometown of Indianapolis at 543 Indiana Avenue and offers many events and programs honoring his memory. In 2022, the American Library Association designated it an official literary landmark, the first place in Indiana to receive this honor. See vonnegutlibrary.org for more information.

According to its website:

“The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library is proud to partner with teachers and students of all ages all over the country to honor Kurt Vonnegut’s dedication to arts education. We know that getting students to engage with reading can be a challenge. But when we introduce them to Vonnegut, something magical happens. Students are laughing; they’re discussing; they’re thinking deeply and grappling with every complex facet of what it means to be human. That’s why the Vonnegut Museum and Library is helping to bring Vonnegut to classrooms from California to Pennsylvania with our Teaching Vonnegut Workshop. And we’re doing it at no cost to teachers.”

Indianapolis is a major city with a population of nearly 900,000 residents and has several literary landmarks. See our Indiana page to connect to the others at https://authoradventures.org/trails/by-state/indiana.

“It may be that the most striking thing about members of my literary generation in retrospect will be that we were allowed to say absolutely anything without fear of punishment.” — Kurt Vonnegut

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is the fifth stop on our Indiana Author Adventures Trail.

Patricia Smart