Kurt Vonnegut Jr., a Indiana native, WW II veteran and POW, and bestselling author, was a distinct voice of the post-war era.
His quick wit and poignant satire influenced a generation of readers and writers. He died in Manhattan April 11, 2007 from complications resulting from fall in his home several weeks earlier.
Vonnegut, the Author
Vonnegut, like Joseph Heller and Thomas Pychon, excelled at subtle, self-deprecating satire. His works include "Breakfast of Champions"; "Slaughterhouse Five," based on the bombing of Dresden, which Vonnegut witnessed as a POW in WWII; "Cat's Cradle," and "Slapstick." His last work, a book of essays titled "A Man without a Country," was published in 2005.
Vonnegut, the Man
Vonnegut, the son of German immigrants, was born and raised in Indianapolis. He attended Cornell University before enlisting in the Army during WWII. After the war, Vonnegut taught at Harvard, was a publisict for GE, and worked as a reporter for the Chicago News Bureau.
Mr. Vonnegut was married twice and had seven children, three of whom are his sister's children that he adopted after his sister was killed in a fire. He lived most of his adult life in New York City.
In an ironic, and somehow fitting, coincidence, Vonnegut's alter ego, the character Kilgore Trout in "Timequake," also dies at age 84. So it goes.
