vonnegut revised three stories for publication in this collection: "the powder-blue dragon" (1954), "the boy who hated girls" (1956), and "hal irwin's magic lamp" (1957). the unrevised version of "hal irwin's magic lamp" was anthologized in "canary in a cat house" (1961). the final work in the collection, "coda to my career as a writer for periodicals", is an essay in which vonnegut reflects on the writing of the stories in this collection, and the person he was at the time.