GORGEOUS FULL-COLOR PACKAGE: These letters, the majority of WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN PUBLISHED BEFORE, are precious physical artifacts, some of them handwritten, covered with cut-outs, comics, and sketches (and lipstick kisses!), on a variety of papers. They’re reproduced here in vivid full-color alongside wonderful family photos to make this a beautiful, keepsake package.

A PERSONAL FAMILY PORTRAIT: Edith will provide her own unique insights, memories, and special family photos (most of which ar exclusive to this book) to give a rare behind-the-scenes look into her parent’s relationship and growing up as a Vonnegut.

WWII LETTERS: This book includes letters from the period of time Kurt was missing in action and lived through the bombing of Dresden, an experience that would ultimately inspire his masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five. 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of these events, and A TELEVISION ADAPTATION OF SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE IS IN THE WORKS with Universal Cable Productions.

A LOVE STORY AT ITS CORE: We have the opportunity to watch young love blossom; the hope, excitement, romance, and yearning contained in the letters is both universal and deeply specific.

Kurt Vonnegut’s black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959, and established him as “a true artist” (The New York Times) with Cat’s Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, “one of the best living American writers.” Kurt Vonnegut died in April 2007.

Edith “Edie” Vonnegut is Kurt Vonnegut’s oldest daughter. She was born in Schenectady, New York in 1949, and raised in Barnstable, Massachusetts. She works as a painter and has exhibited in galleries across the United States. She wrote and illustrated the book Domestic Goddesses. She has also served as a contributing illustrator to The New York Times Op-Ed page and Playboy. She lives in the barn behind the house she grew up in with her husband, John, and has two sons and two grandchildren.

Author Residence: Barnstable, MA

Author Hometown: Indianapolis, IN; Schenectady, NY

“[A] revelatory collection of letters… Literary buffs will relish this fascinating, intimate glimpse of a renowned writer’s formative years.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)