Narconomics von Wainwright, Tom

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. An army intelligence scout during the Second World War, he was captured by the Germans and witnessed the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers, an experience which inspired his classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five. After the war he worked as a police reporter, an advertising copywriter and a public relations man for General Electric. His first novel Player Piano (1952) achieved underground success. Cat's Cradle (1963) was hailed by Graham Greene as 'one of the best novels of the year by one of the ablest living authors'. His eighth book, Slaughterhouse-Five was published in 1969 and was a literary and commercial success, and was made into a film in 1972. Vonnegut is the author of thirteen other novels, three collections of stories and five non-fiction books. Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007.

Briefe sind ebenso Mittel zur Selbsterkenntnis wie ein Weg zum Gedankenaustausch mit anderen. Nur wenige waren sich dessen so tief bewusst wie der leidenschaftliche Briefeschreiber Rainer Maria Rilke. In seinen zehn 'Briefen an einen jungen Dichter', die er in den Jahren 1903/04 und 1908 an den literarisch begabten Offizier Franz Xaver Kappus schrieb, spiegeln sich Empfindsamkeit und Weitsicht, unverbrüchliches Mitgefühl und lebendige Weisheit. Mit ihrer bewundernswerten Offenheit gehören diese Briefe zum Eindrucksvollsten und Schönsten, was je in deutscher Sprache geschrieben wurde.