Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a major 20th century science fiction writer who was born in 1922. His first book, the sci-fi thriller Player Piano, was published in 1952. Several key events in Vonnegut's life and publishing career are noted in relation to dates that marked milestones in the Baha'i faith, such as his imprisonment by Nazis in 1944 and the publishing of his second novel The Sirens of Titan in 1959. The author reflects on having followed Vonnegut's career and critiques of society over many years, and encourages him to have been open to the Baha'i faith's message of unity.

1. A NEW ORPHEUS IN OCTOBER ‘52
One of the major science-fiction writers of the 20th
century was Kurt Vonnegut Jr. He was
born right at the start, in the first year, of the first century of the Formative Age, in 1922.
Kurt Vonnegut’s first book, a sci-fi thriller, Player Piano, was released in June of 1952,
four months before the Ten Year Crusade was launched in October 1952. This was the
eve of the Holy Year commemorating the centenary of the rise of the Orb of
Baha’u’llah’s most sublime Revelation, the first intimation of His glorious Mission. The
year I was born, 1944, the young adult, Vonnegut Jr., was taken prisoner by the Nazis;
the year I joined the Baha’i Faith, 1959, Vonnegut published his second novel The Sirens
of Titan. Vonnegut’s third major book was published the year of the first election of the
Universal House of Justice, 1963. When last I heard, in 2006, Vonnegut had been
lecturing at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and at Harvard University as well
as being a Distinguished Professor at the City College of New York.-Ron Price with
thanks to “Several Internet Sites,” Kurt Vonnegut Jr., June 2006.
You’ve been picking fun at the military,
religion and the establishment all my life,
Kurt—and you’re still at it. I’ve followed
you around ever since I was a kid with your:
skepticism, satire, poking fun at everything
in sight--bleakly comic, despairing of mankind:
you’d do well in Australia with your values!
Your autobiography was there in your books,
your views, your feelings about past, present
and future. You put your life into those books,
your inner struggles, a whole lot of stuff, Kurt!1
Yes, Kurt, you were like those sirens of old,
those sea nymths surrounded by dangerous
rocks—with your enchanting songs and those
who drew near were so often shipwrecked.
Like Odysseus I escaped your cynical songs,
tied as I was to the mast of another ship and,
like Jason and the Argonauts I was saved by
the music of a new-day Orpheus.
You should have heard Him;
Kurt, you should have heard Him!
1
Marek Vit, “Autobiography and Philosophy in the Personal Novels of Kurt Vonnegut:
1968-1979,” Kurt Vonnegut Corner, April 2nd
1998.
Ron Price
June 25th 2006