Dispatches, Stories & Journalism: Hank Nuwer
Grab a coffee and enjoy the story clearinghouse of Hank Nuwer with photos of Alaska and its wildlife by Malgorzata (Gosia) Nuwer.
Hank Nuwer’s Indiana University Press books on hazing. Podcast in The Culture
Podcast of “Weed in the Garden of Academe” with Hank Nuwer
Scroll down for archived Realalaskadaily stories.Thank you for reading. Got a compliment or gripe? Drop a line to Hjnuwer@Alaska.edu. Gosia and I want to keep this site ad-free. Trying to raise funds for last-minute research on the new Kurt Vonnegut biography (“Not authorized, but authentic scholarship”). Your donation would be so helpful: Hank Nuwer, PO Box 73446; Fairbanks, AK 99707-3446.
Glenn Miller: moonlight Sayonara
The weather stunk from England deep into Germany the night of December 15th. Freezing rain and snow grounded the aircraft of both sides. The skies were eerily quiet. One of the very few planes to venture into the sky from England carried band leader Glenn Miller. Like...
The story of Peter Lieber, Kurt Vonnegut’s paternal great-grandfather
Excerpt by Hank Nuwer The grandfather of Edith Lieber Vonnegut was the family patriarch Peter Lieber, born May 27, 1824, in Germany, one of five sons of Richard and Caroline Lieber. He was educated in the best schools of Dusseldorf and Aachen, Germany, the latter a...
Excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut: The Pain Behind the Laughter
Draft only from my in-progress biography of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Kurt Vonnegut: The Pain Behind the Laughter (working title) Chapter One: Oodles of Doodles Kurt Vonnegut Jr. liked to joke that he never asked to be born. Whenever he put his welcomed little scrawl on...
Indianapolis industrial accident in 1875 claimed the life of the nephew of Kurt Vonnegut’s paternal great-grandfather
Josephine Andre Mueller (her remarried name) lived a life marked by many tragedies. She was the sister-in- law of Indianapolis business giants Herman and Peter Lieber, the latter the maternal great grandfather of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. She was widowed during the Civil...
Death of a Salesman: How Clemens Vonnegut Really Did Die
by Hank Nuwer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. said in Palm Sunday that his relative was a “cultivated eccentric” as the family historian John Rauch, Sr., had once described the hardware scion. “That’s what I aspire to be,” Kurt wrote. Palm Sunday (Page 28) by Kurt Vonnegut says...
Exclusive: The Indianapolis Partnership of Charles Volmer & Clemens Vonnegut, Jr.
Indianapolis in 1852 had years of growth ahead before it could rank itself a city of significance. A struggling merchant named Charles Volmer learned that a German countryman of his was living in New York and seeking better prospects. That friend was a...
Exclusive from Hank Nuwer’s forthcoming Kurt Vonnegut bio: Ancestor Johanna Juliana (Julie) Junghans of Dresden
Kurt Vonnegut’s Ancestry: Part One (excerpted from bio by Hank Nuwer) The Vonnegut family’s earliest forbear in America was Johanna Juliana (Julie) Junghans. She had been the offspring of a poor nailsmith. Julie hailed from Dresden, a fact Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. never...
Blue Eggs: Short Fiction by Hank Nuwer
Xavier Lysiak rearranged the papers on his writing table. Today he planned to polish his dissertation, his ticket to a terminal degree and a teaching career. Now his cell phone rang, and he read the caller ID. “I’m handling a tragic mess at Dotty’s place,” his boss...
Ill Met by Moonlight: Charles Wason and the Cornell Fraternity Hazing Death.
By Hank Nuwer: The details and facts in this essay were taken from testimony delivered by members of KAS on October 12 and October 16, 1873, at a two-day coroner’s inquest in Ithaca, New York,. Charles Wason.. Mortimer Marcellus Leggett arrived at Cornell...