Author Kurt Vonnegut will deliver the CHIMES and Neureuther Library Lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 9, in Graham Chapel as part of the Assembly Series. The lecture is free, but public seating will be limited.
Vonnegut has been a major figure in modern American literature since the 1950s. He has written nearly 20 books and is the creator of such characters as Kilgore Trout, a quirky and little-known science-fiction writer; Eliot Rosewater, an altruistic millionaire; and Billy Pilgrim, a wanderer through time.
Vonnegut's novels include "Mother Night," recently made into a film; "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater"; and "Slaughterhouse-Five." According to Vonnegut, the recently published "Timequake" will be his final book.
Vonnegut grew up in Indianapolis and frequently refers to the city in his novels. He attended Cornell University as an undergraduate, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper Cornell Daily Sun. In 1943, he left the university to volunteer for military service, and in 1945, as a prisoner of war, he survived the Allied bombing of Dresden that took the lives of 135,000 people.
The Neureuther Library Lecture was made possible through the generosity of Carl Neureuther. Neureuther was an advocate of lifelong reading and the pursuit of book collecting.
CHIMES, the Junior Leadership Honorary, includes 13 students selected for leadership, scholarship and service. In addition to publishing Ternion, the University's telephone directory, CHIMES members annually sponsor an Assembly Series lecture and the Savor St. Louis food festival.
For more information, call 935-5285.
