Venus On the Half Shell (Dell 6149)

Dell Books, March 1975. Reprint. Mass Market PaperBack . Good. 2nd printing. Well worn with edgewear, creasing. Sound spine that is bruised at base with 1/2' tear to surface. Spine leans slightly, and textblock is starting to curl. (204 pages plus four pages of ads for other Dell titles.) This classic comic-science fiction novel, began its strange life when author, Kilgore Trout found himself as a recurring character within the great Kurt Vonnegut's novels. The first fragment of Venus on the Half-Shell was published by appearing within Vonnegut's 5th novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965). Next, the excerpt was expanded into a complete novel by the wonderful writer, Phillip Jose Farmer and appeared first in two parts, starting, December 1974 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Next it appeared for the first time in this version published by Dell again under the Trout pseudonym. Due to complicated fan derived miscommunication the notion was circulated that Vonnegut was the true author of the entire work, so it was later republished under Phillip Jose Farmer's name. I will not attempt to unravel other elements regarding the story of Kilgore Trout and, according to Wikipedia his 'over 117 novels and over 2,000 short stories' published or the fact he was based upon yet another great name of speculative fiction, Theodore Sturgeon. In many ways his 'biography' is more interesting than the 'real' life stories of Vonnegut, Sturgeon and Farmer put together. And that is perhaps the whole point, if there is indeed a 'point' to anything associated with Mr. Vonnegut.