| A collection of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. short stories released in 1999--actually 24 stories mostly from the 40s and 50s before he was writing novels regularly.
As such, they're a fascinating look into his psyche, and Vonnegut's style works equally well in the short narrative. After all, many of his novels are actually multiple concurrent short stories fused into a cohesive whole. These stories evoke Issac Asimov or Ray Bradbury at their best.
An exceprt from the book jacket:
Before the Golden Age of magazines drew to a close half a century
ago--soon to be beaten at the entertainment game by the new little
boxes with moving images that were finding their way into the homes
of more and more Americans--a young PR man at General Electric
sold his first short story to one of the doomed publications. By the
time he'd sold his third, he decided to quit GE and join the likes of
Hemingway and Fitzgerald and Faulkner, and try to make a living at
fifteen hundred dollars a pop. With four major magazines running five
stories each week and smaller ones scouting as well, it was a
seller's market, and Kurt Vonnegut was delighted - and comfortable -
being published regularly by The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's,
Argosy, and others.
For this unusual collection, Vonnegut has selected twenty-four of his
favorite stories never published before in book form and has written a
new preface for the occasion. Vonnegut scholar Peter Reed, who
unearthed the old publications, contributes an introduction.
Now readers can relive the genesis of a master. Stories such as "Any
Reasonable Offer," "The Powder Blue Dragon," "Hal Irwin's Magic
Lamp," and "Lovers Anonymous" bring us to the beginning of a
literary voice that is sure to last forever. Bagombo Snuff Box, the
missing pieces of the master's oeuvre, is a ready-made classic for
Vonnegut fans new and old.
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