Vonnegut wrote a Foreword in A Saucer of Loneliness, the seventh volume of The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, printed in 2000. It is dated November 1999 from New York City.
Summary[]
Theodore Sturgeon
Some people have noted that Vonnegut's poor and unknown science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout, has the last name of a fish and a first name that ends in "ore" and have asked if Trout was based on Theodore Sturgeon. Vonnegut says "in a way" and relates the story of first meeting Sturgeon in 1958, who at the time was relegated to the margins of literature because he wrote "science fiction". While Vonnegut was living in Barnstable, Massachusetts, Sturgeon and his wife moved to nearby Truro. They once visited the Vonneguts for supper and Sturgeon, "skinny and haggard, underpaid and unappreciated", looked like he'd been writing for days. He announced he would do a standing back flip and did, landing on his knees with a crash. For that brief moment, while "one of the best writers in America" was in Vonnegut's living room "humiliated and laughing in agony", he was the model for Kilgore Trout.[1]
See Also[]
- "Science Fiction", an article that addresses the stigmatization of the genre
- ↑ "Foreword", A Saucer of Loneliness: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, Vol. VII, pg. ix.