Kurt Vonnegut

NARRATOR: This Indiana Bicentennial minute is made possible by the Indiana Historical Society and the law firm of Krieg DeVault.

PAULEY: Booth Tarkington, Theodore Dreiser, and Lou Wallace just some of the famous writers who have made Indiana quite the literary state but perhaps no Hoosier author has had more impact than Kurt Vonnegut.

Images of Kurt Vonnegut and his books are shown.

PAULEY: His “Slaughterhouse Five” depicting the firebombing of Dresden he experienced as a prisoner of war was an instant classic in 1969 and ranked one of the 100 best books of the 20th century world-renowned but always a Hoosier.

Black and white photographs of a younger Kurt Vonnegut and then photographs of an older Kurt Vonnegut is shown.

PAULEY: “All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis,” he said.‘What people like about me is Indianapolis.”

Images of Vonnegut’s books are shown.

PAULEY: Vonnegut published 14 novels and numerous short stories and plays. He died in 2007 in Manhattan but a Hoosier spirit lives on in his works. So it goes. I’m Jane Pauley with this Indiana Bicentennial Minute.

NARRATOR: Made possible by the Indiana Historical Society and the law firm of Krieg DeVault.