Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library


The Indianapolis Star takes note of a new library and museum in their midst.

From the article...

According to founder and president Julia Whitehead, making it a nonprofit organization was important to Vonnegut's three oldest children -- Mark, Edie and Nanny Vonnegut -- all of whom are board members.

The Vonnegut children have been crucial to the library's evolution. They've donated artifacts -- including rejection letters, Vonnegut's Smith Coronamatic typewriter from the 1970s and his World War II Purple Heart -- and suggested programming ideas, including an upcoming writing competition for seniors at Shortridge High School, Vonnegut's alma mater.

But most of the credit belongs to Whitehead, a medical writer for Eli Lilly and Co. and a passionate Vonnegut fan. She had the idea for the library in November 2008, after learning no similar memorial existed for the author of such influential 20th-century works as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle." At the urging of her husband, J.T. Whitehead, a poet and short-story author, she called Mark Vonnegut, who lives in a Boston suburb.

"He was very excited about it," Whitehead said. "He gave me the names of a few people in Indianapolis who had tried to get something similar going before, but hadn't formulated the right plan."

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