“A while ago, writing from a freighter in the Caribbean, you dared me to be open with you, to join you in ding-dongingly frank dialogues. I will try." – letter to Nanette Vonnegut – August 19, 1975.
“In the northwest are the managers and engineers and civil servants and a few professional people; in the northeast are the machines; and in the south, across the Iroquois River, is the area known locally as the Homestead, where almost all the people live.” – from Player Piano, published on August 18, 1952.
“A very tough and funny movie script has been written for my novel Breakfast of Champions…I told Max and Bruce that only you could project the charismatic, absolutely beautiful, one-hundred percent American deep-seated insanity which afflicts this man.” – letter to Jack Nicholson – August 17, 1988.
“You are right, too, God knows, to feel that Céline was vile. I spoke to a Frenchman about Céline one time, and he said impatiently over and over, ‘He was base, he was base.’ I don’t think I’d ever heard the word ‘base’ used in conversation before in that sense.” – letter to Isaac Bashevis Singer – August 16, 1973.
“The stranger had come to Tampa for only one reason – that his old bones had betrayed him. No matter how much his home in the North meant to him, no matter how little Florida meant to him – his old bones had cried out that they couldn’t stand another winter in the snow and cold.” - From “The Man Without No Kiddleys,” possibly written around August 1951.
Now up on The Vonnegut Portfolio Substack: The Shortridge High School Daily Echo, Part 1, a look at Kurt Vonnegut’s earliest writings in his high school newspaper. It’s free. I’m just doing it for fun! Check it out if you feel like it!
https://thevonnegutportfolio.substack.com/p/the-shortridge-high-school-daily
“Jeff and I got breakfast as usual while Bud lay in bed and grinned his big, friendly smile. He just sits or lies around at mealtime and sings ‘Ragtime Cowboy’ until his meal is ready…George will never forgive me for having taught Bud ‘Ragtime Cowboy.’” – from “The Rover Boys in the American Southwest,” a journal of an actual summer trip. – August 11, 1939 (Vonnegut was 16 years old).
“Every so often you will go nuts. All of a sudden the cornfields get you. Fly to Chicago or New York. Cancel classes whenever you damn please. Nobody will be checking up on you.” – letter to Dick Gehman – August 10, 1967.
“Under a great spread net that was laced with rags, an artillery piece squatted in the woods, black and oily, its muzzle thrust at the night sky.” – from “D.P.,” published in Ladies’ Home Journal – August 1953
“I have spoken to several of the other contributors to the 50^(th) anniversary issue [of Esquire Magazine], without revealing what I myself was paid for my piece, and have discovered that nobody was offered as little as I was offered…” – letter to Rust Hills, August 8, 1983
“Unstable as I am, I think it would be preposterous for me to think of writing for a living” – letter to fiancée Jane Cox – August 7, 1945.
“What made Christianity comforting to so many was the congregation. Surprise, surprise, an extended family, as essential to human health as food.” – letter to Robert Maslansky – August 6, 2000.
“I’d rather be a playwright than anything, mainly because playwrights are allowed to smoke backstage.” – letter to Pepé and Maria Pilar – August 5, 1985.
“The old captain wasn't being serious about Maine lobsters taking over the world. What made his joke a joke, in fact, was the assumption that human beings would never let go of their dominance over other life-forms until they had kild everything.” – From “A Dream of the Future (Not Excluding Lobsters),” Esquire Magazine - August 1985
[referring to himself] “…her no good fiancé sleeps till noon, drinks beer all day and goes barefoot. Not only that, he got a goddamn rejection letter from the snooty Saturday Evening Post today, that’s what. He cancelled his subscription in a hurry, believe me. Bastards.” – letter to fiancée Jane Cox – August 3, 1945.
“Last night I had an extremely hot streak and am very pleased with the results before me now. Four short articles…that I hope will land me a contract with The Post.” – letter to fiancée Jane Cox – August 2, 1945.
“I am self-taught. I have no theories about writing that might help others. When I write I simply become what I seemingly must become.” – Preface to the short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House - August 1968