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Kurt Vonnegut was an American writer whose body of work ranks him as one of the greatest modern writers. Born in 1912 in Indianapolis he attended Cornell University for two years where he majored in biochemistry. He then enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) before enlisting in the U.S. Army in World War Two. He would later combine his interest in science and his experience in war as themes for his writing.

Vonnegut, who served as an advanced scout, was captured behind enemy lines during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to a POW camp in Dresden, Germany, and witnessed the now famous Allied fire-bombing raid which destroyed most of the city. Vonnegut, along with seven other American prisoners, survived in a basement meat locker known as "Slaughterhouse-Five." This became the title of Vonnegut's most famous novel.

After the war he attended the University of Chicago's graduate program in anthropology. Although the university rejected his original master's thesis, it later accepted his novel "Cat's Cradle" and awarded him an M.A. in 1971.

Vonnegut's writing are noted for their edgy mix of science fiction with contemporary philosophical issues. His works often wound highly imaginative plots around complex issues.

"Cat's Cradle" raises questions about the role of science in society, the potential harm generated from man's desire to create and acquire knowledge, the absurdity of many accepted principles, all couched inside a novel with a doomsday plot. Vonnegut's writing is often very irreverent and relies on dark humor, but also contains much humanism. His works are particularly postmodern, his protagonists are often anti-heroes similar to Joseph Heller's Yossarian character in "Catch-22."

"Slaughterhouse-Fiv e" is a semi-autobiographical work about a World War Two soldier, Billy Pilgrim, who is "unstuck in time" meaning the book is told as one random experience after another, with no linear timescale. He is visited by a super-intelligent extra terrestrial race of Tralfamadorians who whisk him back to their planet who later destroy the universe testing space fuels. The book unconventionally explores the idea of fatalism, free-will, and the absurd nature of human choices by mixing historical events (the fire-bombing of Dresden) with science fiction. It was ranked number 18 in the Modern Library's list of top 100 fiction books, and made Time Magazine's list of top 100 fiction books written after 1923.

Vonnegut was a humanist and served as the president of the American Humanist Association which he referred to, in typical fashion, as a "totally functionless capacity." His belief in the potential good of mankind spoke through many of his novels which postulate that people could do the right thing if they would begin to think for themselves rather than blindly accept fruitless conventions.

Vonnegut died in his apartment on April 11, 2007, at the age of 84. His body of literary work stands as one of the great catalogs of modern literature.

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