Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

A group of 9 typed letters from Kurt Vonnegut to David Hayman spanning the period from 25 July 1967 to 18 December 1996 in which he discusses various writing projects and life updates. Includes copies of letters written to Vonnegut by Hayman, the original envelopes from Vonnegut, letters from Vonnegut's wife Jane, an invitation to the 1971 wedding of Edith Vonnegut to Geraldo Rivera, and a typed copy of an unpublished interview Hayman conducted with Vonnegut. Comprises:

1) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 25 July 1967 in which he discusses a conference in Illinois and his refusal to sign a loyalty oath, as well as his plans to visit Dresden and his current project, the as-yet-untitled Slaughterhouse Five. In part: "My writing is beginning to go well, I think. I've written my customary reams of real garbage before settling in. I am sorry now that I agreed to write the script for a musical of Cat's Cradle since I have to satisfy a committee with it, and committees can't be satisfied. It isn't much fun, and the hell with it. It is also keeping me from going to Dresden - not that I really want to go there much. It's a duty dance with death, which is the sub-title of my war book now."

2) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 15 July 1969 concerning a possible trip to Greece, meditations on Greek politics and art and ,the success of Slaughterhouse Five. In part: "Yes, I have had a great financial and critical success with my latest book. We are enjoying it. There are comical side-effects: I was asked to write my opinion of the moon shot (tomorrow) for the NYTimes Magazine. After that was published, I was asked to be on a CBS panel which will talk and talk and talk while the astronauts sleep. I don't know doodley shit about the moon."

3) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 26 September 1969 concerning Vonnegut's travel plans to Greece and his thoughts on the post-war comic literature of John Irving and Gunter Grass. He closes discussing an invitation to join an anti-nuclear weapons protest at the White House, remarking, "More fun than a barrel of monkeys. So I'll be at the Whitehouse [sic] on Tuesday, making a fool of myself."

4) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 9 February 1970 in which Vonnegut discusses his recent trip to Germany, writing that "We were gently lowered in a bathyscape into the courtyard of Auschwitz when the ovens were going full blast. Then, at the last moment we were gently withdrawn again." He goes on to promise Hayman an original painting, and closes by discussing Samuel Beckett and Saul Bellow: "Time has congratulated Saul Bellow for thinking positively. They bopped the shit out of me and Mailer and Barth and so on, because we didn't think positively. But they didn't have the balls to mention Beckett or Genet or some of those other international freaks, electrons. Who the hell was it who decided that electrons should be designated by minus signs? Who the hell was it who decided plus was better than minus? Faraday? Something has to be done about self-made Englishmen, and soon."

5) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") undated discussing a paper by one of Hayman's students which he had sent to Vonnegut (included here) and writing a preface to a new edition of The Sirens of Titan.

6) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 9 February 1971, dictated in which he discusses a performance of Jack McGowern reciting Samuel Beckett for 2 1/2 hours. This letter accompanied an original drawing gifted to Hayman by Vonnegut (see next lot), about which Vonnegut writes, "Enjoy in good health. I am now thinking of making hundreds of the things, and never touching a typewriter again."

7) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 16 November 1972 discussing his astonishment that Samuel Beckett knows who he is as well as the end of his marriage to Jane Vonnegut, writing that "we used to be Siamese twins. She has a life of her own now, with plenty of vivid and amusing and important friends at Cambridge. She is strong again, with a busy, busy head. She is becoming a very effective social worker. I am both sorry and glad that we came apart. There are many ties we will never cut, but we can't comfortably be married anymore."

8) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 5 April 19[9]2 in which Vonnegut writes about his uneasiness of continuing his association with Seymour Lawrence.

9) VONNEGUT. Typed letter signed ("Kurt") dated 18 December 1996. In this letter Vonnegut discusses the death of Terry Southern and the eulogy he'd been asked to give, a Becket biography he'd recently read, and his being recently made Honorary President of the American Humanist Society, writing that despite of this "I can't help suspecting from time to time that it could only have been God who sent me to Iowa City, where, as promised in the 23rd Psalm, my cup ran over."