Welcome to the Monkey House

This short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) incorporates almost completely Vonnegut’s 1961 “Canary in a Cathouse,” which appeared within a few months of Slaughterhouse-Five and capitalized upon that breakthrough novel and the enormous attention it suddenly brought.Drawn from both specialized science fiction magazines and the big-circulation general magazines which Vonnegut had been one of the few science writers to sell, the collection includes some of his most accomplished work from 1950 to 1968. The title story may be his most famous—a diabolical government asserts control through compulsory technology removing orgasm from sex—but Vonnegut’s bitterness and wit, not in his earlier work as poisonous or unshielded as it later became, is well demonstrated.Two early stories from Galaxy science fiction magazine and one from Fantasy & Science Fiction (the famous “Harrison Bergeron”) show Vonnegut’s careful command of a genre about which he was always ambivalent, stories like “More Stately Mansions” or “The Foster Portfolio” the confines and formula of a popular fiction of which he was always suspicious. Vonnegut’s affection for humanity and bewilderment as its corruption are manifest in these early works.Several of these stories (those which appeared in Collier’s) were commissioned by Vonnegut’s Cornell classmate and great supporter Knox Burger, also born in 1922.Contents xii • Preface (Welcome to the Monkey House) • (1968) • essay by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 1 • Where I Live • non-genre • (1964) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (variant of You've Never Been to Barnstable?) [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 7 • Harrison Bergeron • (1961) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 15 • Who Am I This Time? • non-genre • (1961) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (variant of My Name Is Everyone) [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 30 • Welcome to the Monkey House • (1968) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 51 • Long Walk to Forever • non-genre • (1960) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 59 • The Foster Portfolio • non-genre • (1951) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 75 • Miss Temptation • non-genre • (1956) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 90 • All the King's Horses • non-genre • (1951) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 111 • Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog • non-genre • (1953) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 118 • New Dictionary • non-genre • (1966) • essay by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 124 • Next Door • non-genre • (1955) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 134 • More Stately Mansions • non-genre • (1951) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 147 • The Hyannis Port Story • non-genre • (1968) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 161 • D. P. • non-genre • (1953) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 173 • Report on the Barnhouse Effect • (1950) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (variant of The Report on the Barnhouse Effect) [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 189 • The Euphio Question • (1951) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 206 • Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son • non-genre • (1962) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 222 • Deer in the Works • non-genre • (1955) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 238 • The Lie • non-genre • (1962) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 254 • Unready to Wear • (1953) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 270 • The Kid Nobody Could Handle • non-genre • [George M. Helmholtz] • (1955) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 284 • The Manned Missiles • (1958) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 297 • EPICAC • (1950) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 306 • Adam • non-genre • (1954) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [as by Kurt Vonnegut] 315 • Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow • (1954) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (variant of The Big Trip Up Yonder) [as by Kurt Vonnegut]