Kurt Vonnegut

An item at American Writers Museum

In 1945, Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in an underground meat locker in Dresden, Germany, while Allied planes pummeled the city with thousands of bombs. An account of this horrific event is the centerpiece of Vonnegut's irreverent, vernacular, and darkly funny Slaughterhouse Five (1969), which blends science fiction, autobiography, traditional fiction, and philosophy.

In Slaughterhouse-Five and in many of his other 13 novels, Vonnegut questioned the meaning of existence, depicted the madness of war, and saw kindness as humanity's only redeeming quality: these perspectives resonated with a country torn apart by military involvement in the Vietnam War. Vonnegut's works, which also included essays, plays, and short stories, became classics of the counterculture.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum