Kurt vonnegut family background

Short story by Kurt Vonnegut

This article is about the short story. For other uses, see All the King's Horses (disambiguation).

"All the King's Horses" is a short story written in or before by Kurt Vonnegut.^[1] It can be found in his collection of short stories Welcome to the Monkey House. It derives its title from a line in the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.

Plot summary

The story takes place in the early years of the Cold War and centers on U.S. Army Colonel Bryan Kelly, whose plane has crash-landed on the Asiatic mainland. With him are his two sons, his wife, the pilot and co-pilot, and ten enlisted men. The sixteen prisoners are held captive by the Communist guerrilla chief Pi Ying, who forces Kelly to play a game of chess using his family and men as the white pieces, and himself as the king. Any American pieces that Pi Ying captures will be executed immediately; if Kelly wins, he and his surviving pieces will be freed. A Kurt vonnegut autobiography!