[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 63 (Thursday, April 19, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E802]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        KURT VONNEGUT, JR.'S CONTRIBUTION TO AMERICAN LITERATURE

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                          HON. DAVID LOEBSACK

                                of iowa

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 19, 2007

  Mr. LOEBSACK. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about Kurt 
Vonnegut Jr. and to extend my condolences to his family on his passing.
  While teaching at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, which I am honored to 
represent in Iowa's Second District, Mr. Vonnegut received the 
Guggenheim Scholarship to return to Dresden, Germany and begin work on 
the novel that would eventually come to be known as Slaughterhouse 
Five. Mr. Vonnegut taught at the Workshop from 1965-1967, and Iowa 
mourns the loss of one of America's finest writers and one of the many 
fine writers who have helped to carry on the tradition of exceptional 
writing in Iowa.
  Kurt Vonnegut was a writer capable of capturing the imagination of 
not only his generation, but of America's youth for generations to 
come. His works examine the moral compass of America, and his often 
hilarious satirization of the culture of our time has earned him the 
rightful reputation of America's most celebrated satirist since Mark 
Twain. Yet he was also a humanist who not only examined some of the 
most defining moments in our history--most famously World War II in 
Slaughterhouse Five--but also, and in spite of the violence he had seen 
as a prisoner of war, concluded that human kindness is alive and well. 
His contributions to American culture are immense and will not soon be 
forgotten.
  Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for your contribution to American 
literature.

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