His experience at Dresden marked him for life and eventually resulted in his literary masterpiece, Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut’s job for weeks after the bombing was to gather up and burn the remains of the dead. Vonnegut and his fellow POWs survived by accident only because they were housed some 60 feet underground in a former meat locker and slaughterhouse.

The resulting firestorm turned the non-militarized city into an inferno that killed up to 60,000 civilians. On February 13, 1945, British and American bombers destroyed the city by dropping high explosives followed by incendiary bombs. When World War II broke out, Vonnegut was 16 at 20, he entered the army and was shipped off to Europe, where he almost immediately was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. Vonnegut studied chemistry at Cornell but later confessed he was a “lousy student.” Vonnegut would be influenced all his writing life by the simple rules of journalism: Get the facts right, compose straightforward declarative sentences, know the audience.

Kurt Jr.’s lifelong pessimism clearly had its roots in his parents’ despairing response to being blindsided by the Depression.Īt Shortridge High, Vonnegut wrote for the student paper, The Echo, and he continued his interest in journalism at Cornell, becoming managing editor of the student paper, The Sun. virtually to give up on life and Edith to become addicted to alcohol and prescription drugs. This radical change in economic circumstances caused Kurt Sr. He had to sell the family home and take young Kurt out of private school, the Orchard School where, in kindergarten, Kurt had met Jane Cox, who eventually became his wife. saw his architectural business disappear. The fortunes of the family changed dramatically during the Depression when Kurt Sr. was the youngest of their three children, along with middle child Alice and first-born Bernard.

was one of the most prominent architects in the city, and his wife, Edith, was the daughter of a wealthy Indianapolis brewer. was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana, a city he would later use in his novels as a symbol of American values.

Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.