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When Kurt Vonnegut returned home on Mother's Day in 1944 he discovered that his mother had committed suicide with sleeping pills the night before. This was one of many incidents in his life that would serve to build his writing tone.
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During World War II Kurt Vonnegut was captured by the Germans and help in a former slaughterhouse-come-POW camp called Slaughterhouse Five. It is believed that this dark time in his life also contributed to the tone of his later writing.
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Kurt never studied writing formally. He returned to school following the war, attending the University of Chicago where he studied sociology.
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While at school in Chicago Kurt began writing short stories and submitting them to various journals. During this time he decided he would commit himself to writing full-time.
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Kurt Vonnegut's first published novel was Player Piano, published in 1952. He would go on to write 14 novels in total including The Sirens of Titan (1959), Mother Night (1961), Cat's Cradle (1963), God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Breakfast of Champions (1973), Slapstick (1976), Jailbird (1979), Deadeye Dick (1982), Galapagos: A Novel (1985), Bluebeard, the Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian (1987), Hocus Pocus (1990), and Timequake (1997).
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Kurt became seriously depressed after writing Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). He gave up writing novels for a while focusing on a play instead.
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Kurt returned to novels and wrote Breakfast of Champions (1973) which would become one of his most notable works.
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Kurt struggled with depression throughout his life, and in 1984 he attempted to commit suicide.
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Kurt Vonnegut's last novel published while he was alive was Timequake (1997).
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Several of Kurt's works were published after his death, including Armageddon in Retrospect (2008), Look at the Birdie (2009), and While Mortals Sleep (2011).
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Kurt Vonnegut's writing career included 14 novels, 81 articles, 123 stories, 16 collections, 1 poem, and 7 plays.
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Kurt Vonnegut was awarded his Master's degree in anthropology for his novel Cat's Cradle, a satirical book about science, technology, the arms race, and religion.
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Kurt Vonnegut was also an artist and many of his illustrations appeared in his books, and later on silk-screen prints.
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Kurt's novels Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions were made into films. He made brief cameo appearances in both films.
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Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11th, 2007 at the age of 84 in New York City, New York.
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