A Very Kurt Conversation

Robert Basler, a life-long journalist who reported from Beijing, Beirut, and Ulan Bator, among other places, returned to Indianapolis, close to where Vonnegut grew up, and recalls their interview.

By Robert Basler,

“Indianapolis, Indiana is the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the murder of an Indian. The kind of people who'll hang a white man for murdering an Indian--that's the kind of people for me.”

-- Kurt Vonnegut

When I was growing up in Indianapolis, we didn’t seem to have much to be proud of as far…