Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons is a rare opportunity to experience Kurt Vonnegut speaking in his own voice about his own life, his views of the world, his writing, and the writing of others. An indignant, outrageous, witty, deeply felt collection of reviews, essays, and speeches, this is a window not only into Vonnegut’s mind but also into his heart.

A book filled with madness and truth and absurdity and self-revelation … [Vonnegut is] a great cosmic comedian and rattler of human skeletons, an idealist disguised as a pessimist. -St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Includes the following essays, speeches, and works:

Science Fiction

Brief Encounters on the Inland Waterway

Hello, Star Vega

Teaching the Unteachable

Yes, We Have No Nirvanas

Fortitude

‘There’s a Maniac Loose Out There’

Excelsior! We’re Going to the Moon! Excelsior!

Address to the American Physical Society

Good Missiles, Good Manners, Good Night

Why They Read Hesse

Oversexed in Indianapolis

The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky

Biafra: A People Betrayed

Address to Graduating Class at Bennington College, 1970

Torture and Blubber

Address to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1971

Reflections on my Own Death

In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself

Thinking Unthinkable, Speaking Unspeakable

Address at Rededication of Wheaton College Library, 1973

Invite Rita Rait to America!

Address to P.E.N. Conference in Stockholm, 1973

A Political Disease

Playboy Interview