Kurt Vonnegut Drawings

This collectible volume introduces Vonnegut’s legion of fans to an entirely new side of his irrepressible creative personality – his work as a gifted graphic artist.

Readers around the world know Kurt Vonnegut as the iconic author of books such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle. Far fewer fans know that Vonnegut was also a talented graphic artist who drew as prodigiously as he wrote.

Kurt Vonnegut Drawings brings together the finest examples of Vonnegut’s funny, strange, and moving drawings in one beautifully designed volume. With a hint of cubism, mixed with a Paul Klee gift for caricature, a Calder-like ability to balance color and line, and more than a touch of sixties psychedelic sensibility, Vonnegut’s aesthetic is as idiosyncratic and defiant of tradition as his books. For Vonnegut, making art was a joyful activity; his delight is evident in the work featured here.

Featuring 150 illustrations, some never before published, Kurt Vonnegut Drawings alsoincludes an introduction by Vonnegut’s daughter, Nanette, who shares an intimate remembrance of her father, and an essay by Peter Reed, a scholar and Vonnegut’s longtime friend.

Review

‘Reveals the satirist as a visual artist, collecting 150 whimsical doodles that his daughter Nanette, who also writes the introduction, kept private for decades.’ – Air Mail

‘Kurt Vonnegut is known less for his graphic art than for satiric masterpieces like Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions. But as a writer who draws, he’s not alone – Victor Hugo,Tom Wolfe, Günter Grass, and John Updike have all sketched and doodled…“Had my father been granted two lifetimes,” Nanette writes, “I have no doubt he would have mastered some aspect of the visual arts. And he would have cursed it and wished he had chosen to be a poet instead.”’ – New York Times Book Review

‘The refreshing images featured here “illustrate beautifully a creative mind at play,” and will delight Vonnegut fans.’ – Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Nanette Vonnegut, a painter and writer, is the daughter of Kurt Vonnegut. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Peter Reed was an emeritus professor of English at the University of Minnesota. A longtime friend of Vonnegut, he wrote extensively on the author’s work.