Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana to Kurt Sr. and Edith Vonnegut. His father was an architect and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy brewer. Kurt Jr. was the youngest of their three children. The Depression brought many changes to the Vonnegut household. Kurt Sr. had to sell the house and Kurt Jr. was taken out of private school. In his teen years, Vonnegut wrote for the student paper, The Echo, and he continued his interest in journalism at Cornell, becoming managing editor of the student paper, The Sun.
At age twenty, Kurt Vonnegut enlisted in the US Army after studying at Cornell University from 1940 to 1942. In 1943, he was sent to Carnegie Mellon University to study engineering. The next year, …show more content…
In 1957, his sister Alice Adams died of cancer, just two days after her husband had been killed in a train crash. Kurt and Jane took in three of Alice’s children. It became more imperative for Vonnegut to bring in more money. Player Piano was followed in 1959 by The Sirens of Titan, In 1961 he published Mother Night, which was adapted for film in 1996. In 1963, Mr. Vonnegut published Cat’s Cradle. Though it initially sold only about 500 copies, it is widely read today in high school English classes.
Mr. Vonnegut shed the label of science-fiction writer with Slaughterhouse-Five. It tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a chaplain’s assistant who discovers the horror of war. Slaughterhouse-Five reached No. 1 on best-seller lists, making Mr. Vonnegut a cult hero. Some schools and libraries have banned it because of its sexual content, rough language and scenes of violence. After the book was published, Mr. Vonnegut went into a severe depression and vowed never to write another …show more content…
As the new century began, Vonnegut continued to try to be, as he said, “a responsible elder in our society,” decrying the militarization of our county after the terrorist attacks of 2001. His last book, in 2005, was a collection of biographical essays, A Man Without a Country. It, too, was a best seller. Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, after a fall on the steps of his New York brownstone. He was mourned the world over as one of the great American writers of the second half of the 20th
At age twenty, Kurt Vonnegut enlisted in the US Army after studying at Cornell University from 1940 to 1942. In 1943, he was sent to Carnegie Mellon University to study engineering. The next year, …show more content…
In 1957, his sister Alice Adams died of cancer, just two days after her husband had been killed in a train crash. Kurt and Jane took in three of Alice’s children. It became more imperative for Vonnegut to bring in more money. Player Piano was followed in 1959 by The Sirens of Titan, In 1961 he published Mother Night, which was adapted for film in 1996. In 1963, Mr. Vonnegut published Cat’s Cradle. Though it initially sold only about 500 copies, it is widely read today in high school English classes.
Mr. Vonnegut shed the label of science-fiction writer with Slaughterhouse-Five. It tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a chaplain’s assistant who discovers the horror of war. Slaughterhouse-Five reached No. 1 on best-seller lists, making Mr. Vonnegut a cult hero. Some schools and libraries have banned it because of its sexual content, rough language and scenes of violence. After the book was published, Mr. Vonnegut went into a severe depression and vowed never to write another …show more content…
As the new century began, Vonnegut continued to try to be, as he said, “a responsible elder in our society,” decrying the militarization of our county after the terrorist attacks of 2001. His last book, in 2005, was a collection of biographical essays, A Man Without a Country. It, too, was a best seller. Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007, after a fall on the steps of his New York brownstone. He was mourned the world over as one of the great American writers of the second half of the 20th