"Truth, Beauty and the Wolf at the Door" is a collection of early works by now-famous writers assembled by Playboy for the December 1973 issue. In addition to Vonnegut, it features brief material by Joan Didion, Neil Simon, Mario Puzo, Bruce Jay Friedman, Arthur Miller, and a 1931 Russian crossword puzzle by Vladimir Nabokov. Vonnegut's excerpt comes from a General Electric News Bureau release, dated January 3, 1950, a little more than a month before the release of Vonnegut's first published work of fiction, the short story "Report on the Barnhouse Effect".
Summary[]
The many accomplishments of General Electric during 1949 included "atom smashers", motors for a supersonic wind tunnel, and advanced calculating machines. Of particular note are a gauge that measures thickness with radioactivity, devices for testing parachutes, a radiation detector, and a repeating photoflash tube. With the Wilson Sporting Goods Company of Chicago, an X-ray fluoroscope was designed that could show the shape and location of the cores in golf balls, which will be taken on tours of golf course in the United States.[1]
- ↑ "Truth, Beauty and the Wolf at the Door", Playboy, December 1973, pg. 229.