Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

A never-before-seen collection of deeply personal love letters from Kurt Vonnegut to his first wife, Jane, compiled and edited by their daughter

"If ever I do write anything of length--good or bad--it will be written with you in mind."

Kurt Vonnegut's eldest daughter, Edith, was cleaning out her mother's attic when she stumbled upon a dusty, aged box. Inside, she discovered an unexpected treasure: more than two hundred love letters written by Kurt to Jane, spanning the early years of their relationship.

The letters begin in 1941, after the former schoolmates reunited at age nineteen, sparked a passionate summer romance, and promised to keep in touch when they headed off to their respective colleges. And they did, through Jane's conscientious studying and Kurt's struggle to pass chemistry. The letters continue after Kurt dropped out and enlisted in the army in 1943, while Jane in turn graduated and worked for the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, D.C. They also detail Kurt's deployment to Europe in 1944, where he was taken prisoner of war and declared missing in action, and his eventual safe return home and the couple's marriage in 1945.

Full of the humor and wit that we have come to associate with Kurt Vonnegut, the letters also reveal little-known private corners of his mind. Passionate and tender, they form an illuminating portrait of a young soldier's life in World War II as he attempts to come to grips with love and mortality. And they bring to light the origins of Vonnegut the writer, when Jane was the only person who believed in and supported him supported him, the young couple having no idea how celebrated he would become.

A beautiful full-color collection of handwritten letters, notes, sketches, and comics, interspersed with Edith's insights and family memories, Love, Kurt is an intimate record of a young man growing into himself, a fascinating account of a writer finding his voice, and a moving testament to the life-altering experience of falling in love.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Audiobook, Romance, History, Literary Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 2020

About the author

Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.

He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.

After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.

His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.

Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)

Reviews

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

من کورت ونه گات رو با کتاب "گهواره‌ی گربه" شناختم که به نظرم عالی بود. این کتابش رو فقط به دلیل اینکه در مورد نامه‌هاست خریدم، کتاب‌ها با محوریت نامه‌نگاری خیلی برام جذاب هستند.
دختر بزرگ ونه گات، ادیث، هفتاد و پنج سال بعد از نگارش این نامه‌ها، اون‌ها رو در اتاق زیرشیروانی خانه‌ی مادرش پیدا میکنه. به طور اتفاقی در جعبه‌ای قدیمی و خاک گرفته...
نامه‌هایی عاشقانه، که شامل عکس، کارت پستال و... از طرف کورت به همسر اولش، جین...
ادیث معتقده این کتاب از هر کتاب دیگه‌ی پدرش ارزشمندتره چرا که این‌ها رو نه برای شهرت یا پول، بلکه برای فتح عشق یک زن نوشته‌.

کتاب: با عشق،کورت
Love, Kurt
نامه های عاشقانه ی کورت ونه گات

[Jolanta]

I’ll not rate or even comment on someone’s love letters that were never ment to be published or be read by someone other than the woman they were addressed to. I’m a huge fan of Vonnegut, I can’t tell how much this man influenced me and helped shape my personality and outlook on life. I even got 2 tattoos dedicated to his brilliance. But this book felt like a massive invasion of his privacy. The letters gave me a glimpse into Vonnegut’s early life before he became a famous writer, but there are too many graphic details of his very intimate life and reading them felt somehow wrong. Really wrong. I can’t believe his family members did this to him.

[Kirsty]

I simply can’t rate a book of love letters that were likely never supposed to be seen. I feel a little dirty having read them, but I couldn’t help myself. I love Vonnegut, and I want as much of his writing as I can get.

Vonnegut had a lot to say and damn if he didn’t say every last thought to his first true love, Jane. A lot of love and insight and wisdom and absolute insanity can be found within this collection of letters. My favorite one is actually the only letter from Jane to Kurt included at the end of the book. It breaks my heart to see that this love didn’t last romantically, but I’m glad they remained friends to Jane’s dying day. I just can’t imagine loving so passionately only to have it fade away at some point. It’s tragic. Kind of beautiful, I guess. So it goes.

[Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t necessarily agree with all the discourse about the publication of these letters being overly invasive. maybe I’d feel that way if it were someone outside the vonnegut family trying to make a buck, but even setting that aside, I kind of hold that if you’re not around to be embarrassed by something, it’s fair game and ownership transfers over to humanity as a whole. if a caveman drew secret little saccharine paintings about his unrequited cave crush, I don’t think it’s an ethical problem to look at it. it’s a part of being a person, and it’s a treat to get to share that across time and space. what a gift that she saved these, through the years of ups and downs!

would it truly be better to have these letters fade away forgotten in an attic, never to be read again? fuck no, put that shit back into the soup of humanity dude, it belongs to everyone now! like, whatever. if some far-future anthropologists want to use my AIM away messages and search history from 6th grade to teach a class on what 21st century boys were up to, who gives a shit, go ahead, happy to help. once i’m dead i’d love people to dig up my old cringe shit. I was alive! please know and hear me! read my shitty old homestar runner fanfic I wrote when I was 13! listen to the twee ukulele songs I wrote in college! I was here! I loved! I tried!

[Panda Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What I say in letters to you is particularly no one's business," Kurt Vonnegut wrote to the woman he loved, never imagining that his future daughter would publish his missives in a book. I feel bad for him, especially since he never intended for his hormonal ramblings or ecstasies about sex to be submitted to the public eye, but I enjoyed reading this collection. It was interesting to see how much he loved his first wife, and to see his development as a writer.

These letters are organized chronologically, and each chapter begins with biographical information about his life and some photographic reproductions. Going into this, I knew very little about Vonnegut, and I was primarily interested in this as a collection of WWII letters. As such, it did not disappoint, but I also enjoyed learning more about him, his life, and his writing aspirations. One of my favorite entries from the section about his postwar experience was a rejection letter that he received. He doodled and wrote on it in amusing ways, and it made me laugh out loud.

This book made me laugh a lot, actually. Even though I'm not familiar with most of Vonnegut's work, I connected with his writing voice and enjoyed his clever turns of phrase, amusing observations, and unique way of looking at the world. I also enjoyed his many doodles. These letters are photographically reproduced, not just presented as transcripts, and I loved his drawings in the margins, his interesting handwriting, and his dramatic signatures. It was also interesting to see reproduced telegrams and Red Cross letters from the war.

Other reviewers complain that Vonnegut seemed creepy to them in these letters, and I can see where they are coming from. His declarations of love can seem obsessive, especially in the early letters, when he was trying to get Jane's attention. However, even though many of his statements seem like red flags at face value, I often read them as him being playful and facetious. It's a matter of context, and even though I get why other people found some of his statements disturbing, I just saw this as dramatic and silly, especially since so many of the letters are written in a very lighthearted tone.

As I previously mentioned, Vonnegut writes dramatic things about sex. He effuses about how attracted he is to his girlfriend and then wife, and often tells her how much he longs to make love to her. I would have found this all extremely uncomfortable and off-putting when I was a teenager, but from an adult perspective, it's part of life, and part of letters from war. He occasionally makes some comments that could be construed as explicit, depending on someone's sensitivity level, but most of his comments are more intimate than lewd. Even though I would DIE of mortification to have these letters reach the public eye if I were him or his partner, none of this is pornographic.

I enjoyed reading this book, and it was a fun surprise to see that the letters were reproduced directly, not just transcribed. However, this also made my digital edition difficult to read, because the print was small on my laptop screen. Even though Vonnegut's handwriting is very legible, the lines are often small and cramped to conserve space, and when it's a thin sheet of paper with writing on both sides, the markings that appear through on the other side make it even more difficult to read it.

I read an advance copy of this through NetGalley, and even though I'm glad that I had this opportunity, I probably would not have requested the book if I had known how challenging it would be to read. I would encourage future readers to pursue a hard copy of this book instead of reading the Kindle edition, because the writing is very small on a screen, and I got a serious case of eye strain from trying to get through it. If someone wants to read a digital edition of this book, they need to be prepared for the struggle and for the fact that they may have to skim over or skip some of the letters.

Despite the complications that I experienced while trying to read this book, I really enjoyed it. I would recommend it to people who are fans of Vonnegut, and to those who enjoy reading historic letter collections and letters from WWII. It's an enjoyable collection, and even though it's very unfiltered and intimate at times, making me wonder what in the world Vonnegut would think of the letters' publication, it's a very engaging reading experience.

I received a temporary digital copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Erin Cataldi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Witty and fun to see how Vonnegut's writing style has progressed but..... he was kinda stalk-ery. He gives poor Jane no room to breathe. They were in colleges states apart and not in a committed relationship but he still proposes to her and talks about their future together in nearly every letter. I would have enjoyed this collection much more if we would have had more of Jane's letters in response to Kurts. As it is their is only one surviving letter from Jane and she is just as witty and well written as him. It is also sad that Kurt possessed this much love for Jane at the beginning but still ended up leaving her. The letters are broken into years and their daughter Edith, provides a brief snapshot of what is happening in their lives as well as some photos. Personally, the best letters are the ones he writes while he is overseas fighting in WWII. Interesting read - but probably only of interest for Vonnegut diehards.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Practically everyone out here thinks I’m a nut. This is highly encouraging.”

Even here in his earliest days, Vonnegut’s signature style that is nothing short of dazzling is present in every line and syllable. I was smiling through nearly the whole collection and heart pounding through most of it. His expression of love is one of the most captivating and intimate I’ve ever seen captured and expressed and it was nothing short of intoxicating. He makes you buy into his dream of marriage and life long bliss with every word and it’s not surprising that he was able to both convince Jane to be his wife and convince the world of his importance with his years to come.

From my freshman year of high school I began to tell people that Vonnegut was my favorite author after reading only Slaughterhouse Five. I quickly changed this pattern after fearing I was being childish and for my ever present fear of not being well read. But after my second point of contact with Vonnegut and his voice, I think perhaps I knew so early on, just as Kurt knew the extent of his love story from the very outset of it, that sometimes you simply know things are great even if it takes you years of commitment to prove it to the world around you. Kurt, you are truly great.

Love,
Chloe

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

True, I do not sleep through the night. This was a good companion through the night to read of Kurt's love for his first wife, the mother of his children as well as to learn of his experience during war years.


Library Loan

[Taylor Livengood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot.
It was fascinating to watch Kurt's word-play develop through these letters written to the girl who would become his wife. The first letters lacked the flair and confidence that slowly became evident towards the end of their correspondence.
I'm glad I read this book.

However, the letters just being scans of the originals -while adding a cool touch, being Kurt Vonnegut's true handwriting, complete with spelling mistakes- also made them difficult to read.
And I was saddened by the end to Kurt and Jane's romance. It left me very disapointed in an author I formerly admired.
So read with caution: Kurt is not only very willing to let you know what he thinks of his wife's body, but he also is not quite as romantic and steadfast as the letters indicate.
So, in conclusion, I was just a tad disappointed by this book's ending.

[Conrad Wesselhoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Love, Kurt" will appeal to diehard lovers of Vonnegut, lovers of books about great writers during their apprenticeship years, and lovers of gale-force love stories. Happily, I'm all three.

In 1941, 19-year-old Kurt became wholly smitten with beauteous Jane Cox and showered her with a five-year torrent of passionate epistles. He doesn't just love Jane, he loves her with exponential effusiveness. His sentences jig, somersault, and rocket. And he was funny. This exuberant young man was already writing in the strong, satiric, incisive voice that was to become the hallmark of his greatest books.

One frustration is that we don't hear Jane's replies until the end, and then it's only two letters (the only ones found by daughter and editor Edie), one to Kurt and one to a prospective literary agent praising Kurt's gifts. However, those two letters sparkle like sun on dew. At that point in their young lives (he had recently demobilized out of the Army after surviving the firebombing of Dresden as a POW), Jane was a brilliant scholar with her own literary dreams.

Eventually, they married, had kids and divorced. But in these ardent, war-torn pages, they are young and happy, and the world is theirs to grab.

[Candace Hisey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit that I'll jump at any opportunity to hear KV's voice in a new context, and of course many of these letters are lovely and funny and all that you'd expect, but I'm with other reviewers who note just how INVASIVE this book feels. I would be so mortified if my family found and published very, very private notes and texts and emails after my death - especially from my late teens/early 20s. *shudder* It wasn't what I expected. Very hard to rate.

[Nick Galaida · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant reminder that the biggest risk there is to experiencing unbridled love and bliss is to play it safe.

Still, certain parts of this book felt like an invasion of privacy. Vonnegut writes in one note, "What I say in letters to you is particularly no one's business." A reader cannot help but wonder how he would feel about the publication of these writings posthumous.

[Dorothy]

being in love is cringe now, being in love was cringe then

[Zeynab · Rating 5 out of 5]

یکی از خاص‌ترین و جالب‌ترین کتاب‌های نامه‌ای که خوندم.

[WrittenbySahra · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

(الآن آخه چه معنی میده صحرا جون که بیای و به نامه‌های عاشقانه یه نفر که برای یه نفر دیگه نوشته شدن امتیاز بدی؟)

درسته. نامه‌های عاشقانه ری‌ویو ندارن برای من. یعنی خب خوشبختی تا چه اندازه؟ گم شدن بین خاطرات دو آدم که قلبشون رو به هم داده بودن خیلی قشنگه. هی می‌خوندم، هی پروانه‌ها دچار ازدیاد نسل می‌شدن خب.
آقای کورت جوان،
چقدر شیطون بلا و عاشق بودید. چقدر جین رو با " عاشقتم "ها عاصی می‌کردید. چقدر شور جوانی در روح‌تون هویدا بود. با اینکه زندگی شخصی شما ابدا هیچ ربطی به من نداره، اما اون نیم ستاره‌ای که کم کردم بخاطر طلاقتون از جین بعد از سال‌ها زندگی بود. نه برای جدایی. نه برای ادعای عشقی که می‌گفتید تا ابد ادامه داره، فقط به این دلیل که یکجایی از کتابم نوشتم:
مرد، خوندن نامه‌هات درد داره. چون یادم میاره که انسان هرگز بدون تغییر باقی نمونده.
در کشاش لذت ترسیدم. از عشقی که شاید کمرنگ بشه. شاید سو سو بزنه و در نهایت بمیره.
شاید هم نمرده بود، شاید هم بارقه کوچیکی ازش توی اون لحظه‌ای که تلفنی با جین حرف می‌زدید وجود داشت که جین چشم‌هاش رو بعد از اون، تونست به آرومی ببنده.
به هرحال، عاشق و شیدا، فریفته، دیوانه و هر صفتی که عشق جنون آمیزم رو به نامه نشون بده هستم. خوشحالم که به پیشنهاد آقای کتابفروش که اصرار داشت سلاخ خانه شماره پنج رو بخونم پشت پا زدم و با عشق، کورت رو از توی قفسه برداشتم. روح من توی سلاخ خانه شماره پنج احساس تنهایی می‌کرد، به این قضیه آگاهی کامل داشتم.

[Dennis Kenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it seems I’m scraping the bottom of the Vonnegut barrel by reading love letters he wrote to his wife before, during and shortly after WWII; but truthfully this collection is extremely beautiful and moving. A tinge bittersweet knowing how their marriage dissolved shortly after the success of SH5, but powerful nonetheless.

I would genuinely recommend this collection to any Vonnegut fan and I’m glad his daughter Edith decided to have these letters published.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Holy hell this man was persistent and loyal and very much in love, I can’t believe he wrote these letters as a 19 year old chem major at Cornell

[Aislinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I can’t believe he left her.

[LeeAnna Weaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kurt Vonnegut's daughter found a box of love letters her father wrote to her mother hidden away in the family attic. They begin when Kurt is only 19, about to begin his sophomore year at Cornell. He is besotted by Jane, a girl he met over summer break in their Indiana hometown. She is headed back to Swarthmore College and doesn't have time for a moony-eyed boy. Kurt is persistent. Very persistent. The letters are so much fun to read. Many of them are hand-written, mostly in pencil (his favorite) and illustrated with his humorous graffiti. Kurt is not a dedicated student (he is majoring in chemistry), but neither is he keen to join the war. He enlists with high hopes of a clerical job, state-side. It wasn't to be. I don't think we would have had Kurt Vonnegut without WWII. I'm waiting on another collection of his letters I have on hold at my library. In the meantime, I plan to read his 1959 novel, The Sirens of Titan.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll admit, there is a level of invasiveness in reading letters not meant for you, and other reviewers refused to even rate this collection. For me, it becomes clear early on why Edith, Kurt's eldest daughter, decided to publish them given the pivotal role Jane played in supporting and encouraging Kurt's early writing. The letters are a true treasure, not only serving as a statement of the bold adoration Kurt had for his first wife but also as a cultural symbol of the early to mid-1940s. Kurt's passions for both Jane and his writing endure through the turbulent World War II era, where he finds beauty in the mundane and cleverly reflects upon the human experience.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how to "review" someone's love letters, but I really enjoyed listening to Lucas Hedges narrating this! He's very talented and made it really fun to listen to.

[J Dubyuh]

Nothing in this book effected me as deeply as Edith describing what her father said to her mother on her deathbed. Phew. Love and death, they are some big things, lemme tell ya.

[Cosmo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody on the planet earth needs to read this. This book should be handed out along with your birth certificate

[Tayler Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

so it goes

[Mik]

I knew my man Kurt was a yearner, but maybe these should’ve stayed private…?

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite reads of the year. i did a review on IG @ groovy.gals.read

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the typewriting, the handwriting and the few envelopes shared in this book.

[Matthew Picardat · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I love Vonnegut this book felt like a massive invasion of privacy.

[Valerie Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I found it truly fascinating to read the chronological events detailing Kurt Vonnegut's relationship with his first wife, as well as the actual letters he wrote to her, those letters became a bit of a liability to the story.

Not only were there a ton of them, but most were a strain to read. The book would have benefited from having the typed-out version of each of the letters next to the picture of them. I also would have liked for them to be cut down a bit as they became a bit redundant, especially with no responding letters present. It got to the point where I would skim the letters, only reading the short and legible ones, and only focused on the descriptions Edith gave with each new section.

Wonderful idea, just needs a bit more fleshed out execution.

The ARC of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Joseph Bowers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong. I love Kurt Vonnegut's books. Read them many times. And I,too, have saved all the missives sent by my now husband while we were dating. But this book is a mess. If I got letters like this professing love, I might take out a restraining order. The letters really give us nothing much but ramblings of how great their love is, references to how great the sex is, and timetables of when they can meet again. All this stemming from, what seemed to be, a one night aquaintance. Granted, after the first 15o pages, I began to skip around but I just couldn't see them point of reading every word. At one point, he himself wonders why she keeps reading his letters as they are an "infantile mass of crap". The final letter is written by his then wife which I believe must be what got his writing career going so I thank her for that.