- We start with a stealth pre-chapter-one chapter that sets up this novel as if it were a translation of Howard W. Campbell, Jr.'s German memoirs. Vonnegut claims he is the humble editor.
- Vonnegut lets us know that in prepping this English translation, he has had a lot to deal with. More, in fact, than just issues of knowledge and dishonesty. Color us intrigued by this intrigue already.
- Vonnegut points out that Campbell was once a playwright, and—uh oh—we can't trust a playwright, because, you know, lies on stage are playwrights' bread and butter. Low blow, Vonnegut.
- No worries, though: Vonnegut follows up with an observation that such trickery is a way to truth. Go figure.
- Back to the task at hand. Vonnegut tells us he's mostly just fixed spelling and grammar issues in these memoirs. He's also changed names—to protect the innocent, of course.
- Whoa, though: Chapter 22 calls Vonnegut's own accuracy into doubt. Why? Well, here's the thing: Campbell wrote a ton of poems and was pretty particular about over-editing them in German—but not so much in English.
- Vonnegut says he teamed up with one Mrs. Theodore Rowley and availed himself of her skills as a linguist and poet to give the reader a sense of what Campbell's work is like for an English-reading audience.
- Vonnegut says he cut a section in Chapter 39 in which Campbell claims to have invented "I-Am-An-American-Day." Lawyers said the assertion had got to go. The rest of Chapter 39 is legit.
- Oh, and Vonnegut also says he deleted a bunch of stuff from Chapter 23 because it's filled with sexy times, and Campbell apparently had a note asking for someone to clean that action up.
- Vonnegut attributes the invention of the title of the memoir, Mother Night, to Campbell himself, who in turn got it from the term's inventor, the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. There's a block quote from Goethe's Faust to clinch the reference.
- Vonnegut also gives credit to Campbell for the dedication: Mata Hari "whored in the interest of espionage, and so did I" says Campbell, so she gets an honorable mention (Editor's Note.13).
- Vonnegut says he'd rather dedicate it to a guy or gal in denial about their own evil. Hmmm, maybe even himself, he ponders.
- In the end, Vonnegut says Campbell should be the dedicatee of this edition of his own memoir.