Authors, Poets & Novelists Posters & Prints, “Vo...-”
for literature, language arts and social studies classrooms and home schoolers.

Voltaire
b. 11-21-1694; Paris, France
d. 5-30-1778

Candide is a ‘picaresque’ novel declared obscene by U.S. Customs in 1929 and seized in 1930. Because Candide was an assigned text at Harvard, and defended by two professors, it was permitted in a different edition. The U.S. Post Office also demanded that a mail order book catalog omit the book in 1944.

Voltaire quotes ~
• “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.”
• “It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
• “Prejudice is opinion without judgement.”
• “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

• Semiramide Opera by Rossini
• The Portable Voltaire

Joost van den Vondel
b. 11-17-1587; Cologne, Holy Roman Empire
d. 2-5-1679; Amsterdam

Joost van den Vondel, whose Mennonite parents fled to Amsterdam for religious freedom, is considered the most prominent Dutch playwright of the 17th century.

It is thought that John Milton may have been influenced by Vondel.

Vondel quote ~
• “The Golden Rule is of no use to you whatever unless you realize it is your move.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
b. 11-11-1922; Indianapolis, IN
d. 4-11-2007; NY

Kurt Vonnegut blended satire, dark comedy and science fiction in such novels as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) about his POW WWII experience of the bombing of Dresden, Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973).

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. quotes ~
• “We are what we imagine ourselves to be.”
• “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
• “We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.”
• “History is merely a list of surprises. It can only prepare us to be surprised yet again.”
• “All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States – and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!”

• Essential Vonnegut Interviews CD

Andrei Voznesensky vintage concert music handbill program

Andrei Voznesensky
b. 5-12-1933; Moscow, Soviet Union
d. 6-1-2010; Moscow, Russia (stroke)

Poet and writer Andrei Voznesensky was called “one of the greatest living poets in any language” by Robert Lowell.

Andrei Voznesensky quote
• “The art of creation is older than the art of killing.”