Vonnegut edition

Hi. The description for the first volume of Kurt Vonnegut states that it's the "first volume of a projected three-volume edition". I wonder, is the aim the complete works? Will Vonnegut's entire literary output even fit into three volumes, including the recently published posthumous stories?

Doesn't quite sound like the complete fiction. A pre-Cat's Cradle volume would have to include Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, and Mother Night. Maybe some stories or essays to go with them. But a third volume of novels postdating Breakfast of Champions would have to cover: Slapstick, Jailbird, Deadeye Dick, Galapagos, Bluebeard, Hocus Pocus, and Timequake. Of these, I've read and enjoyed Deadeye Dick and Galapagos; can't speak to the quality of the rest.

The nice thing about the first Vonnegut volume is that it really hits the sweetspot of his career. All of his best work will be in one volume and not scattered in other volumes alongside the weaker stuff. I'm looking forward to it.

It would be great having a LOA edition of the complete works of Vonnegut. I hope the "projected" edition will be expanded to at least another volume, as has been done with Philip Roth.

A second volume (1952-1961) could contain:

* Player Piano (1952)
* The Sirens of Titan (1959)
* Mother Night (1961)
* Canary in a Cathouse (1961) and maybe other stories

The third (1976-1985) could contain:

* Slapstick (1976)
* Jailbird (1979)
* Deadeye Dick (1982)
* Galápagos (1985)
* Stories

A fourth volume (1987-2005) would be needed to collect the rest:

* Bluebeard (1987)
* Hocus Pocus (1990)
* Timequake (1997)
* God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)
* Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)
* A Man Without a Country (2005) and the posthumous publications

Sorry to be so late to this thread.

The copy on Amazon and in the spring catalog was early jacket copy, based on a preliminary plan. The final jacket copy actually reads "multi-volume" collection; at this point, we don't know how many volumes there will be (or, more accurately, we don't know when we'll be able to publish the later/posthumous work since we don't have a contract or agreements from the publishers). In effect, we didn't want to promise more than we can deliver within a reasonable amount of time.

The volume of early work (1950-1962, coming in Summer 2012) will contain the following:

Player Piano
The Sirens of Titan
Mother Night
Stories
Appendix: Other Texts

I'll have the exact table of contents for this volume at a later date.

--David

DCloyceSmith, thanks so much for the information! Much appreciated. Now I have much less qualms about pre-ordering this volume. Hopefully we'll see the third in Summer 2013, and then in 2014 or 2015 maybe you'll be able to work out a deal for the rest. Fingers crossed!

The second Vonnegut volume is now up on Amazon.

Even so, still would appreciate that more detailed listing of contents (mentioned above by DCloyceSmith), the way it was done with the first K.V. volume (when time permits, of course).

My copy of the second volume just shipped. Very nice. My only qualm is that not many of the short stories are being included. Will there be a separate short fiction volume collecting the remaining shorts, of which there are a sizable amount? Would that included the recently published novella "Basic Training"?

I wonder if there has been any word on a potential fourth volume yet?

The fourth Vonnegut volume (Bluebeard, Hocus Pocus, Timequake, eight additional pieces) will be published in January 2016.

--David

The coming year's slate hasn't yet been announced, but it is already looking to be a very good year.

I've noticed that in the previous three years, the announcement of the summer and fall releases was made on February 1 (twice) and February 13 (once). Hopefully the announcement for this year will be made very soon.

I will be posting the new list on the blog on Monday. (The merger of Penguin's and Random House's warehouse facilities has pushed everything back a bit this year.)

--David

That is great news! Thank you for the reply.

https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781609808082

Here for the first time is the complete short fiction of one of the 20th century's greatest writers. More than half of Vonnegut's output was short fiction, and never before has the world had occasion to wrestle with it all together. Organized thematically--War, Women, Science, Romance, Work Ethic v. Fame and Fortune, Behavior, The Band Director (those stories featuring Lincoln High's band director and nice guy, George Hemholtz), and Futuristic--these 97 stories were written over a lifetime, from 1941 to 2007, and include those published during Vonnegut's lifetime in magazines and collected in Welcome to the Monkey House, Bagombo Snuff Box, and other books; those published posthumously; and, here for the first time, five previously unpublished stories as well as a handful of others that were published online only and read by few. Vonnegut published only about half of the stories he wrote, his agent telling him in 1958 upon the rejection of a particularly strong story, "Save it for the collection of your works which will be published someday when you become famous. Which may take a little time."

Curated and introduced by longtime Vonnegut friend, Dan Wakefield, and Vonnegut scholar Jerome Klinkowitz, the Complete Stories puts Vonnegut's great wit, humor, and humanity on full display. This is an extraordinary new work for readers, Vonnegut fans, and scholars alike.

Seven Stories Press, 9781609808082, 944pp.

Publication Date: September 26, 2017

>18 Pablum:

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I am excited to hear about it.

>18 Pablum: >19 Dr_Flanders:

Less expensive here:

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Stories-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/1609808088/ref=sr_1_1?i...