Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. (vŏn`əgət) 1922–2007, American novelist, b. Indianapolis. After serving in a World War II combat unit, he worked as a police reporter. Marked by wry black humor, Vonnegut's satirical, pessimistic, and morally urgent novels frequently protest the horrors of the 20th cent., as in the best-selling, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969; film, 1972). His fiction spoke with particular forcefulness to the generation that came of age in the 1960s and 70s. Vonnegut's books frequently include elements of science fiction, featuring fantastic plots and sometimes involving such devices as trips in outer space, time faults, and apocalyptic destruction. Among his other novels are Player Piano (1952), Mother Night (1961; film, 1996), Cat's Cradle (1963), God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965), Breakfast of Champions (1973; film, 1999), Deadeye Dick (1983), Bluebeard (1987), and the novel-memoir Timequake (1997). He also wrote short stories, plays, and essays, e.g., the collections Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) and The Man without a Country (2005).

Bibliography

See his semiautobiographical Fates Worse than Death (1991); W. R. Allen, ed., Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut (1988); P. J. Reed and M. Leeds, Vonnegut Chronicles: Interviews and Essays (1996); studies by S. Schatt (1976), J. Lundquist (1977), R. Merrill, ed. (1990), W. R. Allen (1991), L. Mustazza (1990 and 1994), P. J. Reed (1972 and 1997), H. Bloom, ed. (2000), K. A. Boon, ed. (2001), T. F. Marvin (2002), D. E. Morse (1992 and 2003), J. Klinkowitz (1982 and 2004), J. Tomedi (2004), and T. F. Davis (2006); M. Leeds, The Vonnegut Encyclopedia (1995).

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.

(born Nov. 11, 1922, Indianapolis, Ind., U.S.—died April 11, 2007, New York, N.Y.) U.S. novelist. He attended Cornell University and the University of Chicago. Captured by the Germans during World War II, he also survived the Allied firebombing of Dresden, an experience he made part of his novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969; film, 1972). His pessimistic and satirical novels use fantasy and science fiction to highlight the horrors and ironies of 20th-century civilization. They include Player Piano (1952), Cat's Cradle (1963), Breakfast of Champions (1973), Galápagos (1985), and Timequake (1997). A Man Without a Country (2005) is a collection of essays and speeches. Vonnegut also wrote plays and short stories.