KURT VONNEGUT, JR. b. 1922

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (born November 11, 1922) (pronounced [ˈvɑ.nə.gət]) is an American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973).

Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He studied chemistry and biology at Cornell University until 1943, when he enlisted in the army. During the Battle of the Bulge he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He was working in an underground meat locker in January 1945 when the Allied air force firebombed the city of Dresden. That experience formed the center-piece of Vonnegut's most successful novel Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade (1969). Vonnegut brought his characters to the planet of Tralfamador. The people of this planet can't understand why the people from the Earth dislike machines. The inhabitants of Tralfamador have solved many problems of the Universe and even know when their planet will be ruined. Different strange events happen with the main character Billy Pilgrim. He was in German concentration camp, the place of which was occupied by slaughterhouse in the past. He was witness of Dresden bombing by English-American army in February 1945. And he discovered the "truth of time". The catastrophe with the plane helped him to drop put of time - to look at the world from outside and see it in a different way. The novel warns about serious danger of mass destruction weapon which makes disarmament undoubted.

After the war Vonnegut moved to Chicago, where he studied anthropology and worked for a local news bureau. His background in science and technology informed his early Stories and novels which can be classed as science fiction, although they centre primarily, on the social consequences of technological change. Player Piano (1952), his first novel, is about a nightmare of automation, but it is also a satire on the tyranny of giant corporations. The Sirens of Titan (1959), a space opera in its conventions, is also a metaphysical comedy on the themes of free will and determinism. And Cat's Cradle (1963) uses science fantasy in a satire on the amorality of atomic scientists. Vonnegut's work is playful, but serious at the core; his humour is a rearguard defence of human dignity in a world, whose impersonal forces seem to be making people less and lees significant. Vonnegut's later works include his short-story collection God Bless You, Mr Rosewater (1965), Welcome to the Monkey House (1968), Breakfast of Champions (1973), Slapstick (1976), Jailbird (1970), and Palm Sunday. (1981).

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death is a 1969 novel by best-selling author Kurt Vonnegut. One of his most popular works and widely regarded as a classic, it combines science fiction elements with an analysis of the human condition from an uncommon perspective, using time travel as a plot device and the bombing of Dresden in World War II, the aftermath of which Vonnegut witnessed, as a starting point.