The Early Grave

Perhaps the early grave

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, St James Mount, Liverpool, Merseyside, L1

Which men weep over may be meant to save.

From Lord Byron’s Don Juan (1818-1824)

Tin Tabernacle

She wished there was some place where she could go to hum it out loud. Some kind of music was too private to sing in a house cram fall of people.

Tin Tabernacle, Cambridge Avenue, Kilburn, Brent, NW6

It was funny, too, how lonesome a person could be in a crowded house.

From Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)

Three Dollars For Every Person Killed

The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it.

Dresden Frauenkirche, Neumarkt, 01067 Dresden, Germany

I am that person.

Georgentor, Dresden Castle, Schloßstraße, 01067 Dresden, Germany

I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is.

Dresden Castle, Schloßstraße, 01067 Dresden, Germany

One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I’m in.

From Kurt Vonnegut’s introduction to the 1976 edition of Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)