The Vonneblog: Coverage Devoted to Kurt Vonnegut

Starting today,I'll be tracking items of interest related to coverage following the death of Kurt Vonnegut. My own interest is scholarly, and I'll be teaching a course on Vonnegut next January at Franklin College in Indiana.

The first is a charming recollection written by Vonnegut's neighbor David Masello, an editor. Although the two had only a (literally) nodding acquaintance, Masello's interest in the literary icon makes for fascinating reading. The piece begins with a notation on how Vonnegut fans and neigbors have left trinkets and flowers on the author's brownstown stoop in Manhattan between East 48th Street between Second and Third Avenues.

Excerpt: I also remember when a fire broke out in Mr. Vonnegut’s town house. According to news reports, he had apparently fallen asleep with a cigarette in hand. A neighbor across the street saw smoke curling from the top-floor window of the town house and, in the middle of the night, rang Mr. Vonnegut’s bell and called the Fire Department.

For months afterward, the window that had been knocked out during the fire remained boarded up with plywood. And in fact, although Mr. Vonnegut’s residence was a full town house on a shady, much-coveted Manhattan block, it has always appeared less than pristine. Chinese takeout menus litter the landing, and books and papers are piled in front of windows, whose shades and curtains are uneven.

Link to the NY Times Sunday Magazine piece

Keep tuned for daily posts here.