In October of 1973, a high school English teacher in North Dakota decided to use Slaughterhouse Five in his classroom. When Charles McCarthy, the head of the school board, later heard of this he had all 32 copies burned in the school’s furnace, using the book’s apparent “obscene language” as his reason. Kurt Vonnegut sent this letter to him the following week. November 16, 1973 Dear Mr. McCarthy: I am writing to you in your capacity as chairman of the Drake School Board. I am among those American writers whose books have been destroyed in the now famous furnace of your school. Certain members of your community have suggested that…