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Kilgore Trout Biography (Greatest Science Fiction Writer Of All Time)
Kilgore Trout ^

Posted on 03/07/2002 10:28:59 AM PST by PJ-Comix

Kilgore Trout was bom in 1907 of American parents on the British island of Bermuda. Trout attended grammar school there until his father's job with the Royal Ornithological Society terminated. The family moved to Dayton, Ohio, where Trout graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1924. Thereafter, he wandered around the country, workng at menial low-paying jobs and writing science-fiction in his spare time. His only known residences during, this period are Hyannis, Mass., Indianapolis, Ind., and Ilium and Cohoes, N.Y.

He has been married and divorced three times and has one child, Leo, a veteran of Vietnam.

As of 1974, Trout has written one hundred seventeen novels and two thousand short stories. Yet until recently he was little known. This regrettable situation is due to Trout's extreme reclusivity and his indifference to the publication of his stories. He was ill-advised in his choice of publishers, the chief one, World Classics Library, being a firm specializing pornographic novels and magazines. This ensured that his works would be distributed only to stores specializing in this genre. Yet Trout's work, with one exception,* contained no explicitly erotic content. Without Trout's permission or knowledge, World Classics Library put lurid covers on his novels and used his short stories as fillers in ''girlie'' magazines.

In the past few years, however, his fiction has come to the attention of some notable critics and writers in both mainstream and science-fiction. It has been praised for its high imagination and Swiftean satire. Professor Pierre Versins, for instance, in his massive study, Encyclopgdie de l'Utopie, des Voyages Extraordinaires, et de la Science Fiction, Editions l'Age d'Homme, S.A., Lausanne, Switzerland, 1973, says of Trout, ''A thesis on the too neglected works of this author would be most welcome.''

This is true, but the task of collecting his entire corpus of works is formidable. Even the wealthiest and most indefatigable of collectors cannot boast that they have all of Trout's stories. Venus on the Half-Shell is so rare that its only known possessor required payment of several thousand dollars for its purchase by Dell Publishing Company.

However, as one prominent writer has predicted, Trout's career is on the upswing. Dell is proud to be the first to launch Kilgore Trout into the literary-mainstream. That the author is no longer indifferent ,to his brain-children is shown by his insistence on rewriting Venus on the Half-Shell, updating it somewhat, and expanding the character of Chworktap.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: spg; urbanlegends
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Any other Kilgore Trout fans out there? If you haven't heard of Kilgore Trout before it might be because of his relative obscurity. However many die-hard sci-fi readers consider Kilgore Trout to be the greatest science fiction writer of all time. His "Venus On The Half-Shell" is considered by far the BEST science fiction novel ever written. If you have never read this book before, check it out. You won't be disappointed.
1 posted on 03/07/2002 10:28:59 AM PST by PJ-Comix (pj@pjcomix.com)
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To: PJ-Comix
Good-bye Blue Monday.
2 posted on 03/07/2002 10:31:13 AM PST by Spiff
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To: PJ-Comix
I used to like the guy from whom I first heard of Trout, but then he kept writing the same book again and again….
3 posted on 03/07/2002 10:33:19 AM PST by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: Spiff
That the author is no longer indifferent ,to his brain-children is shown by his insistence on rewriting Venus on the Half-Shell, updating it somewhat, and expanding the character of Chworktap.

It's amazing the depth of character he added to Chworktap in the expanded version.

4 posted on 03/07/2002 10:33:30 AM PST by PJ-Comix
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To: PJ-Comix
My hubby is a big fan.
Kilgore Trout aka Kurt Vonnegut.
5 posted on 03/07/2002 10:34:18 AM PST by mystery-ak
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To: PJ-Comix
Never heard of him. Then again, I hate sci fi.
6 posted on 03/07/2002 10:34:47 AM PST by deadrock
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To: PJ-Comix
I've long been a big fan since I first read Trout in high school.

Quite above and beyond his success in the sci-fi genre, I think he's one of the American masters of prose comparable to Lincoln, Clemens or Hemingway.

7 posted on 03/07/2002 10:34:51 AM PST by billorites
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To: PJ-Comix
He's good, but he's no Kurt Vonnegut ;)
8 posted on 03/07/2002 10:35:13 AM PST by caprockkate
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To: PJ-Comix
I've heard of Kilgore Trout, but haven't read him since college. It's Kurt Vonnegut.
9 posted on 03/07/2002 10:36:16 AM PST by Catspaw
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To: PJ-Comix

10 posted on 03/07/2002 10:37:14 AM PST by Spiff
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To: PJ-Comix
Kilgore Trout lived for one semester in the same boarding house as Carlos Casteneda in the early 60s, but on a different floor.
11 posted on 03/07/2002 10:37:21 AM PST by RightWhale
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To: PJ-Comix
Never read him - though I'll keep my eyes open for something of his now - but I doubt he could possibly be as good as the greatest science fiction writer of all time, Robert A. Heinlein.
12 posted on 03/07/2002 10:38:06 AM PST by JenB
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To: DEADROCK
Never heard of him. Then again, I hate sci fi.

You should read Venus On The Half-Shell. It is unlike any other science fiction ever written because it is a very serious work.

13 posted on 03/07/2002 10:42:37 AM PST by PJ-Comix
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To: JenB
Never read him - though I'll keep my eyes open for something of his now - but I doubt he could possibly be as good as the greatest science fiction writer of all time, Robert A. Heinlein.

Kilgore Trout has a much greater depth than Robert Henlein.

14 posted on 03/07/2002 10:44:07 AM PST by PJ-Comix
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To: PJ-Comix
Even on these silly threads, one can find something of interest. Following the links on the "Kilgore Trout" site can take you to right here:

A story from the Washington Post

Reprinted in its entirety. I wonder why they get to do it and we don't.

15 posted on 03/07/2002 10:44:59 AM PST by Cable225
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To: PJ-Comix
I read Venus on the Halfshell in college. It is the only one of his books I have ever found.
16 posted on 03/07/2002 10:47:13 AM PST by steve in DC
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: PJ-Comix
Why are we created only to suffer and die?
18 posted on 03/07/2002 10:52:39 AM PST by Ben Chad
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To: PJ-Comix
Schlachthof-Funf
19 posted on 03/07/2002 10:54:23 AM PST by vikingchick
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To: PJ-Comix
Really? More depth than Heinlein? Some of the best 'messages' I've ever encounted in a book I found in Heinlein. Ideas like doing your best because you should, even if other people are goofing off; putting the needs of others ahead of yourself; learning for its own sake; and that there are times when it's much better to be a dead hero than a live louse. Not to mention basic distances between planets, the name of Pluto's discoverer, why airplanes can't just fall on your head, and the irregular orbit of Pluto. Mind, I'd probably have learned these at some point anyway, but Heinlein's works exposed me to these ideas at the age of ten.

Oh, and his works interested me so much, I even went out, found an old slide rule, and learned how to use it for basic arithmatic. That's good writing for you.

20 posted on 03/07/2002 10:55:02 AM PST by JenB
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