Jon Stewart says this Indiana native writer's books should be on everyone's shelves

" The Daily Show " host Jon Stewart has pretty high praise for the work of one of Indiana's biggest writers.

Apparently, Indianapolis’ own Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a major influence on the comedian; so much so that when an audience member asked about essential reading, Stewart's response was all Vonnegut. Well, almost all.

“Line your desk with Kurt Vonnegut and you cannot go wrong,” he said.

“This may sound antiquated. I feel like I was raised on Kurt Vonnegut,” he said. “Any Kurt Vonnegut … I had the whole … from ‘Player Piano’ to ‘Breakfast of Champions’ to ‘Slaughterhouse Five.’ All of them," he said in a video uploaded to YouTube this week. Stewart is seen answering questions from audiences.

Vonnegut was born and raised in Indianapolis.

“He was my favorite author by far, and I felt like he educated me in the genre of optimistic, cynical humanism,” the satirical news show host said. “He’s a guy who was an author who came of age; he fought in World War Two.”

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“He saw Dresden. That's what ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ was about. It was about his experiences seeing the worst that people could do. And people always mistook his cynicism — or I guess I should say his dryness as cynicism. But it was really idealism. He believed so much in people that he couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed that we were blowing it in the way that we were blowing it.”

Stewart said he’d once interviewed the writer and, after his death, was presented with a drawing Vonnegut had inscribed to him. The artwork is one of Stewart’s most cherished possessions, he said before getting back to the question of must-have books.

“I would say Vonnegut,” he said. “And Playboy.”

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Watch Jon Stewart talk about his favorite writer

He starts talking about Vonnegut at 3:24.

Then when Stewart was asked about the best piece of advice he’s gotten; another Indiana icon was the the answer.

He talked about when his short-lived MTV talk show “The Jon Stewart Show” and funnyman David Letterman was a guest on the final show.

“He said to me, ‘Don’t confuse cancelation with failure,’“ Stewart said. “And I thought that was really interesting.”

“And then in the commercial break, he said, ‘although this is also a failure,’” Stewart said. “He just didn't want me to confuse it.”

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X: @cherylvjackson .

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Jon Stewart says this Indiana native writer's books should be on everyone's shelves