This release is from Julia Whitehead, exec director of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library here:

INDIANAPOLIS, IN –  The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library will be sponsoring a free public lecture on June 8 by noted historian Grant Holcomb who will tell the story of the real-life soldier who  Vonnegut used  as the model for  Billy Pilgrim, the central character in his classic novel “ Slaughterhouse-Five.”

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library lecture will be held on June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Athenaeum, 201 E. Michigan St., Indianapolis, IN 26204. Over the years, Vonnegut has said that the Billy Pilgrim character in his book was based on a young Rochester, New York man who, like Vonnegut, served in the 106th Infantry, was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a POW in Dresden, Germany.  Unlike Vonnegut, however, the real-life Edward R. Crone did not survive the war and, unlike Billy Pilgrim, he did not return to upstate New York to marry and raise a family. 

 During his lecture, Holcomb will discuss Crone’s early years in Rochester, his service during the war (including the bombing of Dresden), his relationship to the character in the Vonnegut novel and how it took his parents five years after the war to locate their son’s body in order to bring him home for burial in Rochester. Holcomb worked with Kurt Vonnegut on developing this presentation on Crone and is coming to Indianapolis to share insights into this important character in Vonnegut’s work.

About Grant Holcomb

Holcomb is the Mary W. and Donald R. Clark Director of the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY. Born and raised in California, Holcomb received his B.A. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Art History from the University of Delaware.  He taught at Mount Holyoke College (1972-1979) before returning to California to begin his museum career at the San Diego Museum of Art where he served as curator and later Assistant Director. He assumed the directorship of the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in 1985.

Holcomb was a Kress Fellow at the National Gallery of Art, has been the recipient of fellowships and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Arts, Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum and the New York State Council on the Arts, among others.  He has written a number of articles, essays and exhibition catalogs on 19^th and 20^th century American art.  He is married and the father of five children.

About the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library Foundation is a public benefit, nonprofit organization championing the literary, artistic, and cultural contributions of the late writer, artist and Indiana native Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.  More information on the Vonnegut Library can be found at www.vonnegutlibrary.org.  Please RSVP for this special event by e-mailing julia@vonnegutlibrary.org.