Mark Vonnegut, the son
of Kurt and Jane Cox Vonnegut, received a B.A. in Religion from Swarthmore in
1969. After graduation, he started a commune in British Columbia; he had his
first psychotic break shortly thereafter. Vonnegut was originally diagnosed as
suffering from schizophrenia but was subsequently diagnosed as manic depressive;
the medically preferred term is now bipolar. He spent several years back on the
Cape recovering and working odd jobs, and he eventually completed a first
memoir, The Eden
Express, published in 1975 and named an
ALA Notable Book.
In 1974, Vonnegut decided to follow his true calling and go to medical school and earned his medical degree from Harvard. Vonnegut finished his pediatrics residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1982 and has been a primary care pediatrician ever since. He is currently an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Mark Vonnegut is married to Barbara Sibert Vonnegut and has three sons. He paints, plays the saxophone and likes to walk his dog. His newest memoir, Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So, was published by Delacorte Press on October 5, 2010.
On your nightstand now:
Mount Misery by Samuel Shem, The Art Instinct by Denis Dutton and One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.
Your top five authors:
Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, William Faulkner.
Book you've faked reading:
Moby Dick until I did.
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman.
Book(s) that changed your life:
Catcher in the Rye and Catch 22.
Favorite line from a book:
"Shut Up," he explained. --The Young Immigrunts by Ring W. Lardner, Jr.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Huckleberry Finn.
Why you write:
I write to figure out what I think.
A life lesson that you came away with from a book:
"Don't marry Heathcliff!" Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.