First Edition Hardcover
Bluebeard is Vonnegut's twelfth novel, published by Delacourt on October 6, 1987. Framed as the autobiography of Abstract Expressionist painter Rabo Karabekian, it was inspired by an article on Jackson Pollock that Vonnegut wrote for Esquire in 1983. Begun in the spring of 1984 in an old potato barn on his summer property in Sagaponack, it was completed in February 1987 at his townhouse in Turtle Bay. Five hundred specially bound first printings were signed by Vonnegut and sold as a slipcased "limited first edition". The British edition was published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, London on April 28, 1988.[1] Its epigraph is from a letter written by his son, Mark, and is a quote Vonnegut would use repeatedly for the rest of his life—"We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is".[2]
The work opens with an "Author's Note" from Vonnegut, stating that this "hoax autobiography" is not meant to be an accurate examination of the history of Abstract Expressionism. The main characters are fictional and the real people "do nothing that they did not actually do". This book is inspired by the "grotesque prices" paid for works of art in the twentieth century, which allows certain wealthy people or institutions to endow certain forms of human playfulness—such as art, children's games like "running, jumping, catching, throwing", and dancing and singing—with "inappropriate and hence distressing seriousness".[3]
Karabekian's autobiography is dedicated to Circe Berman, a stranger who is secretly a successful but controversial author of young adult novels whom he invites on a whim to stay at his large beachfront Long Island home. Interspersed with reflections from his present life, Karabekian recounts his youth in California with his Armenian parents who survived a Turkish massacre; his arrival in New York City to serve as apprentice to Dan Gregory, a talented and successful illustrator, where he develops a relationship with Gregory's mistress, Marilee Kemp; his service in World War Two, in which he lost an eye; his failed first marriage during his brief time as an Abstract Expressionist painter; and his second marriage to the wealthy Edith Taft, recently deceased and in whose familial home Karabekian is now living. Throughout, reference is made to rumors about the contents of a potato barn on Karabekian's property, to which no one else has had access.
Franklin Library Edition[]
In the fall of 1987 the Franklin Library privately printed a specially designed "deluxe" edition of Bluebeard for members of its Signed First Editions Society.[1] In Sagaponack, Vonnegut wrote a "Special Message" for this edition which was later included in chapter 3 of 1991's Fates Worse Than Death and reprinted in the fourth volume of the Library of America's Vonnegut set.
Summary[]
Those in Alcoholics Anonymous were right to become intoxicated, since life without occasional intoxication is meaningless. Their mistake was to choose a poison instead of the ways children do so, by playing with water, color, rocks, sounds, or other aspects of “the Great Big Everything” known as the Universe. Only the child and the Universe are involved, the latter, as dominant playmate, responding to the child's experiments in learning how to make the Universe play nice instead of mean. Painter play games with oil, chalk, and other items, but as adults—especially if they have dependents to care for—must allow a third player who can ridicule or reward. Often this third player knows little about painting but does know what it likes. Sometimes it's an actual dictator, other times a critic, curator, dealer, or family members. Since the game is only played well with two people, in this case, “three's a crowd”.
Most good painters wish they didn't have to sell their works. Saul Steinberg, a graphic artist, once mentioned “with whimsical smugness” that since his work was meant to be reproduced in books, magazines, and posters, he was allowed to keep his originals. Both of Vonnegut's daughters must sell pictures they wish they could keep, but the third player requires them to “put them up for adoption”, as well as giving information about how to make them more sellable, “to run a successful baby factory”. His youngest daughter is married to another painter who has found some measure of financial success, allowing them now to keep their best pictures. Painters are most satisfied when they can become intoxicated for as long as they wish with what their hands and eyes can do with art materials, regardless of what the rest of the world is doing.
Writing, on the other hand, is “essentially clerical” and tedious, such that intruders are often welcome. For the Abstract Expressionist movement, the third player entered their world with surprising force, especially for the “shy and dead broke” Jackson Pollock. His splatters and dribbles over a canvas was originally done with little more than a child's desire to see if it would be interesting. But as an adult, he both realized such works might be interesting to others, as well as trusting his own instinct to control his hands in way that produced satisfying results. Some thought him an artistic fraud while other thought he was leading an epic breakthrough, but regardless, the world was now watching intently. While this led to money and fame, it was also overwhelming, leading Pollock to die young, drunk, and unhappy. An appropriate epitaph for his tombstone might be: “Three's a crowd”.