was born November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of,Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., a successful architect, and Edith Sophia Vonnegut. He had twoolder siblings, a brother Bernard, and a sister Alice. He attended Short ridge highschool. This is where he first realized his talent for writing. He was the editor of theschool newspaper. Kurt graduated in 1940, and after high school, attended CornellUniversity and studied bio-chemistry, and was also a columnist and editor of theCornell daily sun. However, because of bad grades, Kurt found himself almost flunkingout of Cornell University. He saved himself from expulsion by joining the army in1942. While in the army, several devastating experiences happened to Kurt. First in1944, he received the news that his mother had committed suicide. A few monthslater Kurt was captured by the German Army. He was forced to produce a vitaminenriched malt for pregnant women. While doing this he happened to survive thefirebombing of Dresden. His book Slaughterhouse-five is partially about the bombingof Dresden After being rescued by the Soviets, Vonnegut returned home. He was working asa Police Reporter for the Chicago News Bureau and studying anthropology at theUniversity of Chicago. He later moved to Schenectedy, New York. Here he workedin Press Relations for the General Electric Plant. This experience that led to thecreation of his first novel Player Piano, . It was after the publication of this novel thathe moved to Rhode Island, while in addition to writing short stories, he taught HighSchool English and opened the first Saab dealership in the United States. Afterrealizing the shrinking of the Short Story market, he began concentrating entirely onnovels.It was Vonnegut's novels that gained him critical acclaim in the late sixties andseventies. His Science Fiction novels created a popularity and demand that nearlyoverwhelmed him. He has continued to write novels, his last being Time Quake, in 1...
