Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana

Vonnegut, Kurt Typed letter signed ("Kurt Vonnegut"), to Charles McCarthy, head of the school board at Drake High School in North Dakota, responding to the censorship and burning of Slaughterhouse Five at Drake 2 pp (241 x 189 mm, sight), 349 East 54th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022, November 16, 1973; both pages handsomely matted and framed together with the postmarked envelope (overall 368 x 655 mm); horizontal folds, not examined out of frame. Vonnegut's emphatic rejoinder to the burning of Slaughterhouse Five at a North Dakota high school ﻿In October, 1973, a high school in Drake, North Dakota made headlines when the school board ordered the destruction of 32 copies of Slaughterhouse Five, electing, apparently without much thought, to use the sensational method of destruction by furnace. Vonnegut's anti-war novel had been assigned by sophomore English teacher Bruce Severy, which prompted a special school board meeting where novel was deemed unsuitable for 15-year-old readers. Reporters descended upon the small town of Drake, and the citizens were by all accounts dumbfounded by their newfound notoriety. At the time, the author offered an economical statement on the affair: "Everybody's against book burning." Vonnegut, it would be revealed later, chose to express the depth of his outrage privately and directly to the chairman of the Drake School Board, Charles McCarthy. In the present letter, Vonnegut offers an impassioned argument against the actions of the Drake School Board, quoting extensively, but in part: "If you were to bother to read my books, to behave as educated persons would, you would learn that they are not sexy, and do not argue in favor of wildness of any kind. They beg that people be kinder and more responsible than they often are. It is true that some of the characters speak coarsely. That is because people speak coarsely in real life. Especially soldiers and hardworking men speak coarsely, and even our most sheltered children know that. And we all know, too, that those words really don’t damage children much. They didn’t damage us when we were young. It was evil deeds and lying that hurt us." He goes on: "I read in the newspaper that your community is mystified by the outcry from all over the country about what you have done. Well, you have discovered that Drake is a part of American civilization, and your fellow Americans can’t stand it that you have behaved in such an uncivilized way. Perhaps you will learn from this that books are sacred to free men for very good reasons, and that wars have been fought against nations which hate books and burn them. If you are an American, you must allow all ideas to circulate freely in your community, not merely your own." "If you and your board are now determined to show that you in fact have wisdom and maturity when you exercise your powers over the education of your young, then you should acknowledge that it was a rotten lesson you taught young people in a free society when you denounced and then burned books–books you hadn’t even read. You should also resolve to expose your children to all sorts of opinions and information, in order that they will be better equipped to make decisions and to survive." "Again: you have insulted me, and I am a good citizen, and I am very real."

View 1 of Lot 115: Vonnegut, Kurt | Vonnegut's stirring response to the censorship and burning of Slaughterhouse Five 

vonnegut, kurt | vonnegut's stirring response to the censorship and burning of slaughterhouse five

Books and Manuscripts from the Collection of Jay I. Kislak. Sold to Benefit the Kislak Family Foundation. 

Vonnegut, Kurt Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade. [New York]: Delacorte Press, 1969 8vo (214 x 140 mm). Signed on the half-title. Publisher’s blue cloth, spine and boards gilt lettered, in the original printed dustjacket, with photographic portrait on the rear panel, black endpapers; dustjacket somewhat toned, more so at the spine, with one or two strays stains. Housed in a black clamshell box. First edition, signed by Vonnegut with his characteristic self-portrait on the half-title. A classic of twentieth-century American literature, in which Vonnegut drew from his experiences as a prisoner of war in Dresden, where he survived the fire-bombing of the city by taking refuge in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse in which he was imprisoned.

View 1 of Lot 95: Vonnegut, Kurt | Signed with his characteristic self-portrait

vonnegut, kurt | signed with his characteristic self-portrait

Fine Books & Manuscripts Online

VONNEGUT, KURT SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE. NEW YORK: DELACORTE PRESS, 1969 8vo. Publisher's gilt-stamped blue cloth in dust-jacket; cloth and spine imprint a little rubbed, jacket very fine, unchipped, with none of the usual fading. First edition, signed by Vonnegut with his characteristic self-portrait on half title. Uncommon inscribed in this condition.

vonnegut, kurt | slaughterhouse-five. new york: delacorte press, 1969

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade. [New York]: Delacorte Press, 1969

vonnegut. kurt.

8vo, first edition, original green cloth with blue panel at fore-edge lettered in blue and decorated with gilt dots, spine in blue and gilt, dust-jacket, very minor wear to jacket

cat's cradle. new york, chicago, san francisco: holt, rinehart and winston, [1963]

8vo, presentation copy inscribed by the author, first hardback edition, original cloth, dust-jacket, upper hinge split, dust-jacket frayed at extremities with tears and some loss

the sirens of titan. boston: houghton mifflin co., 1961

Player Piano. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952

Results for "Kurt Vonnegut"