While mortals sleep

While Mortals Sleep is a posthumous collection of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, released in 2011 by Dial Press. The stories were recovered from the author's archives at Indiana University and represent pieces he wrote for popular magazines during the 1950s, a period when his fiction was primarily featured in venues like Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. The collection was curated by Dave Eggers, who served as editor, aiming to preserve the earlier, more traditional narrative style Vonnegut employed before his later shift toward the experimental satire that defined his legacy.

The publication was framed as a literary rediscovery, highlighting the development of Vonnegut's distinct voice and recurring themes such as technology, corporate culture, and the American dream. Critics generally received the work as an essential addition for enthusiasts of Vonnegut's bibliography, noting that while these stories lacked the cynical bite of his later masterpieces like Slaughterhouse-Five, they provided vital context into his roots as a commercial writer working within the constraints of mid-century magazine editorial standards.