1. Kurt Vonnegut and his works (1922-2007)
Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Vonnegut’s family came from a fourth generation Germans (a fact which he mentioned in the beginning of Slaughterhouse-Five). Kurt Vonnegut was raised in a wealthy family in a craft home in Indianapolis. His father was a successful architect and his mother was the only daughter of a wealthy brewer. Kurt Vonnegut was raised together with his older brother Bernard and his younger sister Alice. Unfortunately in 1929 his father was diagnosed with depression, Vonnegut’s family suffered a severe financial setback. Both his father and mother became quite despondent, his mother so much so that on May 14, 1944 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. His mother’s death was a great shock in Vonnegut’s life.
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While he was in Shortridge high school Vonnegut discovered that he was very good at writing. He started writing columns for Daily Echo, of which he became the editor. After he graduated from the high school in 1940, Vonnegut wanted to study English or journalism but with his father and brother urging, he enrolled at Cornell University as his elder brother, Bernard, who became a pioneer rainmaker by discovering a way to ‘seed’ clouds. Vonnegut studied chemistry at Cornell University but later he confessed he was a ‘lousy student’. However, he became the managing editor of the Cornell Daily Sun and a regular columnist for the