Kilgore Trout

Kilgore Trout
First appearance	1965
Last appearance	2004
Created by	Kurt Vonnegut
Portrayed by	Albert Finney
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Science fiction writer
Children	Leon Trotsky Trout
Nationality	American

Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. In Vonnegut's work, Trout is a notably unsuccessful author of paperback science fiction novels.

Trout was inspired by author Theodore Sturgeon (Vonnegut's colleague in the genre of science fiction—Vonnegut was amused by the notion of a person with the name of a fish, Sturgeon, hence Trout), although Trout's consistent presence in Vonnegut's works has also led critics to view him as the author's own alter ego. Neither Sturgeon nor Vonnegut was yet a successful writer when the two became friends.

In an homage to Vonnegut, Kilgore Trout is also the titular author of the novel Venus on the Half-Shell, written pseudonymously by Philip José Farmer.

In 1957, Theodore Sturgeon moved to Truro, Massachusetts, where he befriended Vonnegut, then working as a salesman in a Saab dealership. At the time, both were writing in the genre of science fiction (Vonnegut had already published Player Piano, retitled Utopia 14 in paperback). By the time of Kilgore Trout's first appearance (in 1965's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater), both had moved to different cities, and Vonnegut had begun to be perceived as a mainstream author. The name was a transparent reference to the older writer (substituting "Kilgore" for "Theodore" and "Trout" for "Sturgeon"), but since the characterization was less than flattering (both Sturgeon and Trout were financially unsuccessful and seemingly slipping into obscurity), Vonnegut did not publicly state the connection, nor did Sturgeon encourage the comparison. It was not until after Sturgeon's death in 1985 that Vonnegut explicitly acknowledged the matter, stating in a 1987 interview that "Yeah, it said so in his obituary in the New York Times. I was delighted that it said in the middle of it that he was the inspiration for the Kurt Vonnegut character of Kilgore Trout."

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