Kurt Vonnegut Jr. suggested yesterday that "In the history of art, the people who succeed in later life spent their youths being rejected again and again."

Vonnegut's succinct 45-second address climaxed an emotional hour-long vigil in the upper Seminar Room at Warren House, English Department headquarters, where a couple hundred aspiring novelists turned up to apply for the 15 places in author Vonnegut's English V writing course. After a 20-second pause, during which the assembled absorbed the preceding sentence, Vonnegut added. "If your love life is in a shambles and everything else is going wrong, this will be just one more thing."

The meeting was scheduled for 2 p.m. Vonnegut entered the room at approximately 2:11. He stood in a dark recess, the only light coming from the tip of his cigarette and the flash bulbs reflected off his blue suit. His first words were, "Are all you people here for my course?"

Though large, the group was not a cross section of the Harvard student body. Most seemed fairly familiar with the insides of Warren House. "One time that I was in this room," one reminisced, "David Perkins was in that chair over there having a heart attack about the Bible Requirement." David D. Per-kins '51, is professor of English.

"None of your petty plots will work," one senior assured a covey of mild acquaintances. "We're all just as competitive and aggressive as you are."

At the end of Vonnegut's address, the congregation was asked to rise. They filed solemnly past a table in an adjoining room, deposited their written offerings, and left in silence.

Except for one girl who stopped to ask Vonnegut for his autograph.