Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Born in Indianapolis. Attended Cornell University, majoring in chemistry. Served in WWII and was POW in Dresden when 135,000 were killed by fire bombs. His mother committed suicide on Mother’s Day 1944. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Attended University of Chicago as graduate student in anthropology, but his thesis was rejected. In 1971 Chicago awarded him the MA, accepting his novel Cat’s Cradle as substitute for his thesis. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) After WWII he married his childhood sweetheart Jane Cox and eventually raised seven children, three with her, three adopted after his sister Alice died and one adopted with his second wife Jill Krementz. Worked in public relations for General Electric. Quit in 1950 to write science fiction. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Player Piano (1952) was his first novel, followed by The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Mother Night (1961). Cat’s Cradle (1963) was his first book to be published in hard back, followed by God Bless You Mr. Rosewater (1965) Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Considered giving up writing but took a position teaching at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop where he started writing Slaughter House Five (1969) which became his first big best seller. Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) Other novels included Breakfast of Champions (1973), Slapstick (1976), Jailbird (1979), Deadeye Dick (1982), Galápagos (1985), Bluebeard (1987), Hocus Pocus (1990), and Timequake (1997). Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) He smoked unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes all of his adult life, calling it a “classy way to commit suicide.” In TimeQuake (1997) he wrote that his alter ego Kilgore Trout would die when he was 84. Ten years later, Vonnegut died at the age of 84 after a fall in his home. .