Editing Kurt Vonnegut (section)

== Biography ==
=== Family and early life ===
Vonnegut was born in [[Indianapolis]], on November 11, 1922, the youngest of three children of [[Kurt Vonnegut Sr.]] (1884–1957) and his wife Edith (1888–1944; née Lieber). His older siblings were [[Bernard Vonnegut|Bernard]] (1914–1997) and Alice (1917–1958). He descended from a long line of [[German Americans]] whose immigrant ancestors settled in the United States in the mid-19th century; his paternal great-grandfather, [[Clemens Vonnegut]], settled in Indianapolis and founded the [[Vonnegut Hardware Company]]. His father and grandfather [[Bernard Vonnegut I|Bernard]] were architects; the architecture firm under Kurt Sr. designed such buildings as [[Athenæum (Das Deutsche Haus)|Das Deutsche Haus]] (now called "The Athenæum"), the Indiana headquarters of the [[Bell Telephone Company]], and the [[Fletcher Trust Building]].<ref name="BoomhowerFarrell4-5" /> Vonnegut's mother was born into Indianapolis's [[Gilded Age]] high society, as her family, the Liebers, were among the wealthiest in the city based on a fortune deriving from a successful brewery.{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=2}}

Both of Vonnegut's parents were fluent speakers of the [[German language in the United States|German language]], but pervasive [[anti-German sentiment]] during and after [[World War I]] caused them to abandon [[German culture]]; many German Americans were told at the time that this was a precondition for [[American patriotism]]. Thus, they did not teach Vonnegut to speak German or introduce him to [[German literature]], [[German cuisine|cuisine]], or traditions, leaving him feeling "ignorant and rootless".<ref name="Sharp1360">{{harvnb|Sharp|2006|p=1360}}.</ref><ref name="Marvin2Farrell3-4">{{harvnb|Marvin|2002|p=2}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|pp=3–4}}.</ref> Vonnegut later credited Ida Young, his family's African-American cook and housekeeper during the first decade of his life, for raising him and giving him values; he said, "she gave me decent moral instruction and was exceedingly nice to me", and "was as great an influence on me as anybody". He described her as "humane and wise" and added that "the compassionate, forgiving aspects of [his] beliefs" came from her.<ref name="Marvin4">{{harvnb|Marvin|2002|p=4}}.</ref>

The financial security and social prosperity that the Vonneguts had once enjoyed were destroyed in a matter of years. The Liebers' brewery closed down in 1921 after the advent of [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition]]. When the [[Great Depression]] hit, few people could afford to build, causing clients at Kurt Sr.'s architectural firm to become scarce.{{sfn|Sharp|2006|p=1360}} Vonnegut's brother and sister had finished their primary and secondary educations in private schools, but Vonnegut was placed in a public school called Public School No.&nbsp;43 (now the [[James Whitcomb Riley]] School).<ref name="Boomhower">{{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}.</ref> He was bothered by the Great Depression,{{efn|In fact, Vonnegut often described himself as a "child of the Great Depression". He also stated the Depression and its effects incited pessimism about the validity of the [[American Dream]].<ref name="Sumner">{{harvnb|Sumner|2014}}.</ref>}} and both his parents were affected deeply by their economic misfortune. His father withdrew from normal life and became what Vonnegut called a "dreamy artist".<ref name="Sharp1360Marvin2-3">{{harvnb|Sharp|2006|p=1360}}; {{harvnb|Marvin|2002|pp=2–3}}.</ref> His mother became depressed, withdrawn, bitter, and abusive. She labored to regain the family's wealth and status, and Vonnegut said that she expressed hatred for her husband that was "as corrosive as [[hydrochloric acid]]".<ref name="Marvin2-3">{{harvnb|Marvin|2002|pp=2–3}}.</ref> She often tried in vain to sell short stories she had written to ''[[Collier's]]'', ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'', and other magazines.<ref name="Sharp1360" />

=== High school and Cornell University ===
[[File:Kurt Vonnegut - High School Yearbook.PNG|thumb|upright|Vonnegut as a teenager, from the [[Shortridge High School]] 1940 yearbook]]
Vonnegut enrolled at [[Shortridge High School]] in Indianapolis in 1936. While there, he played [[clarinet]] in the school band and became a co-editor (along with [[Madelyn Pugh]]) of the Tuesday edition of the school newspaper, ''The Shortridge Echo''. Vonnegut said that his tenure with the ''Echo'' allowed him to write for a large audience—his fellow students—rather than for a teacher, an experience, he said, which was "fun and easy".<ref name="BoomhowerFarrell4-5" /> "It just turned out that I could write better than a lot of other people", Vonnegut observed. "Each person has something he can do easily and can't imagine why everybody else has so much trouble doing it."<ref name="Boomhower" />

After graduating from Shortridge in 1940, Vonnegut enrolled at [[Cornell University]] in [[Ithaca, New York]]. He wanted to study the humanities and had aspirations of becoming an architect like his father, but his father{{efn|Kurt Sr. was embittered by his own lack of work as an architect during the Great Depression and feared a similar fate for his son. He dismissed his son's desired areas of study as "junk jewellery" and persuaded his son against following in his footsteps.<ref name="Farrell5Boomhower" />}} and brother Bernard, an atmospheric scientist, urged him to study a "useful" discipline.<ref name="BoomhowerFarrell4-5">{{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|pp=4–5}}.</ref> As a result, Vonnegut majored in [[biochemistry]], but he had little proficiency in the area and was indifferent towards his studies.<ref>{{harvnb|Sumner|2014}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=5}}.</ref> As his father had been a member of the [[Delta Upsilon]] fraternity at [[MIT]],<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|p=41}}.</ref> Vonnegut was entitled to join and did so.<ref name="Lowery2007">{{harvnb|Lowery|2007}}.</ref> He overcame stiff competition for a place at the university's independent newspaper, ''[[The Cornell Daily Sun]]'', first serving as a [[staff writer]], then as an editor.<ref name="Farrell5">{{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=5}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=41–42}}.</ref> By the end of his first year, he was writing a column titled "Innocents Abroad", which reused jokes from other publications. He later penned a piece titled "Well All Right" focusing on [[pacifism]], a cause he strongly supported,<ref name="Boomhower" /> arguing against US intervention in World War&nbsp;II.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=44–45}}.</ref>

===World War II===
[[File:Kurt-Vonnegut-US-Army-portrait.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Vonnegut in army uniform during [[World War&nbsp;II]]]]
The [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] brought the United States into [[World War II|WWII]]. Vonnegut was a member of Cornell's [[Reserve Officers' Training Corps]] unit, but poor grades and a satirical article in Cornell's newspaper cost him his place there. He was placed on [[Scholastic probation|academic probation]] in May 1942 and dropped out the following January. No longer eligible for a deferment as a member of ROTC, he faced likely [[Conscription in the United States|conscription]] into the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]. Instead of waiting to be drafted, he enlisted in the Army and in March 1943 reported to [[Fort Bragg]], North Carolina, for basic training.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=45–49}}.</ref> Vonnegut was trained to fire and maintain [[howitzer]]s and later received instruction in [[mechanical engineering]] at the [[Carnegie Institute of Technology]] and the [[University of Tennessee]] as part of the [[Army Specialized Training Program]] (ASTP).<ref name="Farrell5Boomhower">{{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=5}}; {{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}.</ref>

In early 1944, the ASTP was canceled due to the Army's need for soldiers to support [[Operation Overlord|the D-Day invasion]], and Vonnegut was ordered to an infantry battalion at [[Camp Atterbury]], south of Indianapolis in [[Edinburgh, Indiana]], where he trained as a scout.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=50–51}}.</ref> He lived so close to his home that he was "able to sleep in [his] own bedroom and use the family car on weekends".{{sfn|Farrell|2009|p=6}}

On May 14, 1944, Vonnegut returned home on leave for [[Mother's Day (United States)|Mother's Day]] weekend to discover that his mother had committed suicide the previous night by [[drug overdose|overdosing on sleeping pills]].<ref name="Farrell6">{{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=6}}; {{harvnb|Marvin|2002|p=3}}.</ref> Possible factors that contributed to Edith Vonnegut's suicide include the family's loss of wealth and status, Vonnegut's forthcoming deployment overseas, and her own lack of success as a writer. She was inebriated at the time and under the influence of prescription drugs.<ref name="Farrell6" />

Three months after his mother's suicide, Vonnegut was sent to Europe as an intelligence scout with the [[106th Infantry Division (United States)|106th Infantry Division]]. In December 1944, he fought in the [[Battle of the Bulge]], one of the last German offensives of the war.<ref name="Farrell6" /> On December 22, Vonnegut was captured with about 50 other American soldiers.<ref name="Sharp1363Farrell6">{{harvnb|Sharp|2006|p=1363}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=6}}.</ref> Vonnegut was taken by [[boxcar]] to a prison camp south of [[Dresden]], in the German province of [[Saxony]]. During the journey, the [[Royal Air Force]] mistakenly attacked the trains carrying Vonnegut and his fellow [[prisoners of war]], killing about 150 of them.<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Vonnegut|2008}}.</ref> Vonnegut was sent to Dresden, the "first fancy city [he had] ever seen". He lived in a slaughterhouse when he got to the city, and worked in a factory that made [[malt syrup]] for pregnant women. Vonnegut recalled the sirens going off whenever another city was bombed. The Germans did not expect Dresden to be bombed, Vonnegut said. "There were very few air-raid shelters in town and no war industries, just cigarette factories, hospitals, clarinet factories."<ref name="TheParisReview">{{harvnb|Hayman|Michaelis|Plimpton|Rhodes|1977}}.</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-Z0309-310, Zerstörtes Dresden.jpg|thumb|right|[[Dresden]] in 1945. More than 90% of the city's center was destroyed.]]
On February 13, 1945, Dresden became the target of [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]]. In the hours and days that followed, the Allies engaged in a [[bombing of Dresden|firebombing of the city]].<ref name="Farrell6" /> The offensive subsided on February 15, with about 25,000 civilians killed in the bombing. Vonnegut marveled at the level of both the destruction in Dresden and the secrecy that attended it. He had survived by taking refuge in a meat locker three stories underground.<ref name="Boomhower" /> "It was cool there, with cadavers hanging all around", Vonnegut said. "When we came up the city was gone&nbsp;... They burnt the whole damn town down."<ref name="TheParisReview" /> Vonnegut and other American prisoners were put to work immediately after the bombing, excavating bodies from the rubble.<ref>{{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|pp=6–7}}.</ref> He described the activity as a "terribly elaborate Easter-egg hunt".<ref name="TheParisReview" />

The American POWs were evacuated on foot to the border of Saxony and [[Czechoslovakia]] after U.S. General [[George S.&nbsp;Patton]]'s [[United States Army Central|3rd Army]] captured [[Leipzig]]. With the captives abandoned by their guards, Vonnegut reached a prisoner-of-war repatriation camp in [[Le Havre]], France, in May 1945, with the aid of the Soviets.<ref name=":0" /> Sent back to the United States, he was stationed at [[Fort Riley]], [[Kansas]], typing discharge papers for other soldiers.<ref>{{cite interview |last=Vonnegut |first=Kurt |interviewer=[[Michael Silverblatt]] |title=Kurt Vonnegut |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=538&v=4bclBnx4cpk |publisher=KCRW |location=Santa Monica, California |date=April 6, 2006 |work=Bookworm |access-date=October 6, 2015 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405004752/https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=538&v=4bclBnx4cpk |url-status=live }}</ref> Soon after, he was awarded a [[Purple Heart]], about which he remarked: "I myself was awarded my country's second-lowest decoration, a Purple Heart for [[frost-bite]]."<ref name="DaltonSEP">{{harvnb|Dalton|2011}}.</ref> He was discharged from the U.S. Army and returned to Indianapolis.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas|2006|p=7}}; {{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=80–82}}.</ref>

=== Marriage, University of Chicago, and early employment ===
After he returned to the United States, 22-year-old Vonnegut married Jane Marie Cox, his high-school girlfriend and classmate since kindergarten, on September 1, 1945. The pair moved to Chicago; there, Vonnegut enrolled in the [[University of Chicago]] on the [[G.I. Bill]], as an [[anthropology]] student in an unusual five-year joint undergraduate/graduate program that conferred a [[master's degree]]. He studied under anthropologist [[Robert Redfield]], his "most famous professor".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vonnegut |first=Kurt |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/23253474 |title=Fates worse than death: an autobiographical collage of the 1980s |date=1991 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |isbn=978-0-399-13633-7 |location=New York |pages=122 |oclc=23253474}}</ref> He also worked as a reporter for the [[City News Bureau of Chicago]].{{sfn|Smith|2007}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://chronicle.uchicago.edu/940203/vonnegut.shtml|title=Kurt Vonnegut to visit campus as Kovler Fellow|website=chronicle.uchicago.edu|date=February 3, 1994}}</ref>

Jane, who had graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore,<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|p=26}}</ref> accepted a scholarship from the university to study [[Russian literature]] as a graduate student. Jane dropped out of the program after becoming pregnant with the couple's first child, [[Mark Vonnegut|Mark]] (born May 1947), while Kurt also left the university without any degree (despite having completed his undergraduate education). Vonnegut failed to write a dissertation, as his ideas had all been rejected.<ref name="TheParisReview"/> One abandoned topic was about the Ghost Dance and Cubist movements.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/184338/kurt-vonnegut-by-kurt-vonnegut/9780385343763/excerpt |access-date=March 24, 2023 |website=Penguin Random House Canada |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324072706/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/184338/kurt-vonnegut-by-kurt-vonnegut/9780385343763/excerpt |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=electricliterature |date=April 7, 2015 |title=Kurt Vonnegut's Graduation Speech: What the "Ghost Dance" of the Native Americans and the French... |url=http://electricliterature.com/kurt-vonneguts-graduation-speech-what-the-ghost-dance-of-the-native-americans-and-the-french/ |access-date=March 24, 2023 |website=Electric Literature |archive-date=March 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325092008/https://electricliterature.com/kurt-vonneguts-graduation-speech-what-the-ghost-dance-of-the-native-americans-and-the-french/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=May 18, 2017 |title=Of Ghost Shirts and Gizmos |url=https://salo.iu.edu/index.php/of-ghost-shirts-and-gizmos-phillips-on-player-piano/ |access-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518201902/https://salo.iu.edu/index.php/of-ghost-shirts-and-gizmos-phillips-on-player-piano/ |archive-date=May 18, 2017 }}</ref> A later topic, rejected "unanimously", had to do with the shapes of stories.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Klinkowitz |first=Jerome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3nwMCAAAQBAJ |title=The Vonnegut Effect |date=June 5, 2012 |publisher=Univ of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-61117-114-3 |access-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324202601/https://books.google.com/books?id=3nwMCAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kurt Vonnegut, Counterculture's Novelist, Dies |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20070413friday.html |access-date=March 24, 2023 |website=archive.nytimes.com |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324072725/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20070413friday.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Vonnegut|2009|p=285}} Vonnegut received his graduate degree in anthropology 25 years after he left, when the university accepted his novel ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'' in lieu of his master's thesis.{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=7}}

Shortly thereafter, [[General Electric]] (GE) hired Vonnegut as a technical writer, then publicist,{{sfn|Noble|2017|loc=p. 166: "In the early 1950s novelist Kurt Vonnegut was a technical writer and publicist at GE headquarters in Schenectady."}} for the company's [[Schenectady, New York]], News Bureau, a publicity department that operated like a newsroom.<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|p=81}}</ref> His brother Bernard had worked at GE since 1945, focusing mainly on a silver-iodide-based [[cloud seeding]] project that quickly became a joint GE–[[United States Army Signal Corps|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] program, Project Cirrus. In ''The Brothers Vonnegut'', [[Ginger Strand]] draws connections between many real events at General Electric, including Bernard's work, and Vonnegut's early stories, which were regularly being rejected everywhere he sent them.<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|p=87}}</ref> Throughout this period, Jane Vonnegut encouraged him, editing his stories, strategizing about submissions and buoying his spirits.<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|p=89}}</ref>

In 1949, Kurt and Jane had a daughter named [[Edith Vonnegut|Edith]]. Still working for GE, Vonnegut had his first piece, titled "[[Report on the Barnhouse Effect]]", published in the February 11, 1950, issue of ''Collier's'', for which he received $750.<ref>{{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}; {{harvnb|Sumner|2014}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|pp=7–8}}.</ref> The story concerned a scientist who fears that his invention will be used as a weapon, much as Bernard was fearing at the time about his cloudseeding work.<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|p=117}}</ref> Vonnegut wrote another story, after being coached by the fiction editor at ''Collier's'', Knox Burger, and again sold it to the magazine, this time for $950. While Burger supported Vonnegut's writing, he was shocked when Vonnegut quit GE as of January 1, 1951, later stating: "I never said he should give up his job and devote himself to fiction.  I don't trust the freelancer's life, it's tough."<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|p=115}}.</ref> Nevertheless, in early 1951 Vonnegut moved with his family to [[Cape Cod, Massachusetts]], to write full time, leaving GE behind.<ref>{{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}; {{harvnb|Hayman|Michaelis|Plimpton|Rhodes|1977}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=8}}.</ref> He initially moved to [[Osterville, Massachusetts|Osterville]], but he ended up purchasing a home in [[Barnstable, Massachusetts|Barnstable]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sidman |first=Dan |title=Cape ties to writer Kurt Vonnegut celebrated |url=https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/entertainment/books/2014/10/09/cape-ties-to-writer-kurt/36022438007/ |access-date=April 4, 2023 |newspaper=Cape Cod Times}}</ref>

=== First novel ===
In 1952, Vonnegut's first novel, ''[[Player Piano (novel)|Player Piano]]'', was published by [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner's]]. The novel has a post-[[World War III]] setting, in which factory workers have been replaced by machines.<ref name = "player" /> ''Player Piano'' draws upon Vonnegut's experience as an employee at GE. The novel is set at a General Electric-like company and includes many scenes based on things Vonnegut saw there.<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|pp=202–212}}</ref> He satirizes the drive to climb the corporate ladder, one that in ''Player Piano'' is rapidly disappearing as automation increases, putting even executives out of work. His central character, Paul Proteus, has an ambitious wife, a backstabbing assistant, and a feeling of empathy for the poor. Sent by his boss, Kroner, as a double agent among the poor (who have all the material goods they want, but little sense of purpose), he leads them in a machine-smashing, museum-burning revolution.<ref name = "playerp" /> ''Player Piano'' expresses Vonnegut's opposition to [[McCarthyism]], something made clear when the Ghost Shirts, the revolutionary organization Paul penetrates and eventually leads, is referred to by one character as "[[fellow travelers]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1991|p=32}}.</ref>

In ''Player Piano'', Vonnegut originates many of the techniques he would use in his later works. The comic, heavy-drinking Shah of Bratpuhr, an outsider to this [[dystopia]]n corporate United States, is able to ask many questions that an insider would not think to ask, or would cause offense by doing so. For example, when taken to see the [[artificial intelligence|artificially intelligent]] [[supercomputer]] EPICAC, the Shah asks it "what are people for?" and receives no answer. Speaking for Vonnegut, he dismisses it as a "false god". This type of alien visitor would recur throughout Vonnegut's later novels.<ref name="playerp">{{harvnb|Allen|1991|pp=20–30}}.</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]'' writer and critic [[Granville Hicks]] gave ''Player Piano'' a positive review, favorably comparing it to [[Aldous Huxley]]'s ''[[Brave New World]]''. Hicks called Vonnegut a "sharp-eyed satirist". None of the reviewers considered the novel particularly important. Several editions were printed—one by [[Bantam Books|Bantam]] with the title ''Utopia&nbsp;14'', and another by the [[Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club]]—whereby Vonnegut gained the reputation as a writer of [[science fiction]], a genre held in disdain by writers at that time. He defended the genre and deplored a perceived sentiment that "no one can simultaneously be a respectable writer and understand how a refrigerator works".<ref name = "player">{{harvnb|Boomhower|1999}}; {{harvnb|Farrell|2009|pp=8–9}}; {{harvnb|Marvin|2002|p=25}}.</ref>

=== Struggling writer ===
[[File:Vonnegut and family large.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|Vonnegut with his wife Jane and children (from left to right): Mark, Edith and Nanette, in 1955]]
After ''Player Piano'', Vonnegut continued to sell short stories to various magazines. Contracted to produce a second novel (which eventually became ''Cat's Cradle''), he struggled to complete it, and the work languished for years. In 1954, the couple had a third child, Nanette. With a growing family and no financially successful novels yet, Vonnegut's short stories helped to sustain the family, though he frequently needed to find additional sources of income. In 1957, he and a partner opened a [[Saab automobile]] dealership on Cape Cod, but it went bankrupt by the end of the year.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|p=142}}.</ref> He designed a World War II–themed board game called "GHQ" ([[General Headquarters (game)|General Headquarters]]), but publishers did not buy it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Julia |first1=Carmel |title=Kurt Vonnegut the Board Game Designer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/03/crosswords/kurt-vonnegut-board-game-ghq.html |access-date=13 October 2024 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=3 October 2024|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 1958, his sister, Alice, died of cancer two days after her husband, James Carmalt Adams, was killed in [[Newark Bay rail accident|a train accident]]. The Vonneguts took in three of the Adamses' young sons—James, [[Steve Adams (writer)|Steven]], and Kurt, aged 14, 11, and 9, respectively.<ref name="Farrell9">{{harvnb|Farrell|2009|p=9}}.</ref> A fourth Adams son, Peter, age 2, also stayed with the Vonneguts for about a year before being given to the care of a paternal relative in Georgia.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|p=164}}.</ref>

Grappling with family challenges, Vonnegut continued to write, publishing novels vastly dissimilar in terms of plot.

''[[The Sirens of Titan]]'' (1959) features a Martian invasion of Earth as experienced by a bored billionaire, Malachi Constant. He meets Winston Niles Rumfoord, an aristocratic space traveler, who is virtually omniscient but stuck in a time warp that causes him to appear on Earth only every 59 days. The billionaire learns that his actions and the events of all of history are determined by a race of robotic aliens from the planet [[Tralfamadore]], who need a replacement part that can only be produced by an advanced civilization in order to repair their spaceship and return home. Human history has been manipulated to produce it. Some human structures, such as [[the Kremlin]], are coded signals from the aliens to their ship as to how long it may expect to wait for the repair to take place. Reviewers were uncertain what to think of the book, with one comparing it to [[Jacques Offenbach|Offenbach]]'s opera ''[[The Tales of Hoffmann]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=159–161}}.</ref>

Rumfoord, who is based on [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], physically resembles the former president. Rumfoord is described this way: he "put a cigarette in a long, bone cigarette holder, lighted it. He thrust out his jaw. The cigarette holder pointed straight up."<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1991|p=39}}.</ref> [[William Rodney Allen]], in his guide to Vonnegut's works, stated that Rumfoord foreshadowed the fictional political figures who would play major roles in ''[[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]'' and ''Jailbird''.<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1991|p=40}}.</ref>

''[[Mother Night]]'', published in 1961, received little attention at the time of its publication. Howard W.&nbsp;Campbell&nbsp;Jr., Vonnegut's protagonist, is an American who is raised in Germany from age 11 and joins the [[Nazi Party]] during the war as a double agent for the US [[Office of Strategic Services]], rising to the regime's highest ranks as a radio propagandist. After the war, the spy agency refuses to clear his name, and he is eventually imprisoned by the Israelis in the same cell block as [[Adolf Eichmann]]. Vonnegut wrote in a foreword to a later edition, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be".<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=171–173}}.</ref> Literary critic Lawrence Berkove considered the novel, like [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', to illustrate the tendency for "impersonators to get carried away by their impersonations, to become what they impersonate and therefore to live in a world of illusion".<ref>{{harvnb|Morse|2003|p=19}}.</ref>

Also published in 1961 was Vonnegut's short story "[[Harrison Bergeron]]", set in a dystopic future where all are equal, even if that means disfiguring beautiful people and forcing the strong or intelligent to wear devices that negate their advantages. Fourteen-year-old Harrison is a genius and athlete forced to wear record-level "handicaps" and imprisoned for attempting to overthrow the government. He escapes to a television studio, tears away his handicaps, and frees a ballerina from her lead weights. As they dance, they are killed by the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers.{{sfn|Leeds|1995|p=46}} Vonnegut, in a later letter, suggested that "Harrison Bergeron" might have sprung from his envy and self-pity as a high-school misfit. In his 1976 biography of Vonnegut, Stanley Schatt suggested that the short story shows that "in any leveling process, what really is lost, according to Vonnegut, is beauty, grace, and wisdom".{{sfn|Hattenhauer|1998|p=387}} Darryl Hattenhauer, in his 1998 journal article on "Harrison Bergeron", theorized that the story was a satire on American [[Cold War]] understandings of [[communism]] and [[socialism]].{{sfn|Hattenhauer|1998|p=387}}

With ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'' (1963), Allen wrote, "Vonnegut hit full stride for the first time".<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1991|p=53}}.</ref> The narrator, John, intends to write of Dr.&nbsp;Felix Hoenikker, one of the fictional fathers of the [[atomic bomb]], seeking to cover the scientist's human side. Hoenikker, in addition to the bomb, has developed another threat to mankind, "ice-nine", which is solid water stable at room temperature but more dense than liquid water. If a particle of ice-nine is dropped in water, all of the surrounding water becomes ice-nine. Felix Hoenikker is based on Bernard Vonnegut's boss at the GE Research Lab, [[Irving Langmuir]], and the way ice-nine is described in the novel is reminiscent of how Bernard Vonnegut explained his own invention, silver-iodide cloudseeding, to Kurt.<ref>{{harvnb|Strand|2015|pp=236–237}}</ref> Much of the second half of the book is spent on the fictional Caribbean island of San Lorenzo, where John explores a religion called [[Bokononism]], whose holy books (excerpts from which are quoted) give the novel the moral core science does not supply. After the oceans are converted to ice-nine, wiping out most of humankind, John wanders the frozen surface, seeking to save himself and to make sure that his story survives.<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1991|pp=54–65}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morse|2003|pp=62–63}}.</ref>

Vonnegut based the title character of ''God Bless You, Mr.&nbsp;Rosewater'' (1964) on an accountant he knew in Cape Cod who specialized in clients in trouble and often had to comfort them. Eliot Rosewater, the wealthy son of a Republican senator, seeks to atone for his wartime killing of noncombatant firefighters by serving in a [[volunteer fire department]] and giving away money to those in trouble or need. Stress from a battle for control of his charitable foundation pushes him over the edge, and he is placed in a mental hospital. He recovers and ends the financial battle by declaring the children of his county to be his heirs.<ref>{{harvnb|Shields|2011|pp=182–183}}.</ref> Allen deemed ''God Bless You, Mr.&nbsp;Rosewater'' more "a cry from the heart than a novel under its author's full intellectual control", that reflected family and emotional stresses Vonnegut was going through at the time.<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1991|p=75}}.</ref>

In the mid-1960s, Vonnegut contemplated abandoning his writing career. In 1999, he wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'', "I had gone broke, was out of print and had a lot of kids..." But then, on the recommendation of an admirer, he received a surprise offer of a teaching job at the [[Iowa Writers' Workshop]], employment that he likened to the rescue of a drowning man.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://movies2.nytimes.com/library/books/052499vonnegut-writing.html |title=Writers on Writing: Despite Tough Guys, Life is Not the Only School for Real Novelists |last=Vonnegut |first=Kurt |date=May 24, 1999 |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=January 2, 2020 |ref=none |archive-date=December 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191219080205/http://movies2.nytimes.com/library/books/052499vonnegut-writing.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' ===
{{main|Slaughterhouse-Five}}
[[File:Kurt Vonnegut 1972.jpg|thumb|Vonnegut in 1972]]
After spending almost two years at [[Iowa Writers' Workshop|the writer's workshop]] at the [[University of Iowa]], teaching one course each term, Vonnegut was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] for research in Germany. By the time he won it, in March 1967, he was becoming a well-known writer. He used the funds to travel in Eastern Europe, including to Dresden, where he found many prominent buildings still in ruins.{{sfn|Shields|2011|pp=219–228}}

Vonnegut had been writing about his war experiences at Dresden ever since he returned from the war, but unable to write anything that was acceptable to himself or his publishers; chapter one of ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' tells of his difficulties.{{sfn|Allen|pp=82–85}}{{sfn|Strand|2015|pp=49–50}} Released in 1969, the novel rocketed Vonnegut to fame.{{sfn|Shields|2011|pp=248–249}} It tells of the life of Billy Pilgrim, who like Vonnegut was born in 1922 and survives the bombing of Dresden. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, with many of the story's climaxes—Billy's death in 1976, his kidnapping by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore nine years earlier, and the execution of Billy's friend Edgar Derby in the ashes of Dresden for stealing a teapot—disclosed in the story's first pages.{{sfn|Allen|pp=82–85}} 

''Slaughterhouse-Five'' received generally positive reviews, with [[Michael Crichton]] writing in ''[[The New Republic]]'':
<blockquote>he writes about the most excruciatingly painful things. His novels have attacked our deepest fears of automation and the bomb, our deepest political guilts, our fiercest hatreds and loves. No one else writes books on these subjects; they are inaccessible to normal novelists.{{sfn|Shields|2011|p=254}}</blockquote>

The book went immediately to the top of [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller list]]. Vonnegut's earlier works had appealed strongly to many college students, and the antiwar message of ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' resonated with a generation marked by the [[Vietnam War]]. He later stated that the loss of confidence in government that Vietnam caused finally allowed an honest conversation regarding events like Dresden.{{sfn|Shields|2011|pp=248–249}}

In 1970, Vonnegut was also a correspondent in [[Biafra]] during the [[Nigerian Civil War]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKdcCgk_FowC&pg=PA12 |page=12 |title=Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five |series=Bloom's Guides |first1=Harold |last1=Bloom |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4381-2709-5 |author-link=Harold Bloom}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_T6j421tM4C&pg=PA55 |title=Kurt Vonnegut's America |first1=Jerome |last1=Klinkowitz |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-57003-826-6 |page=55 |access-date=September 2, 2017 |archive-date=March 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312222218/https://books.google.com/books?id=L_T6j421tM4C&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Later life ===
[[File:New York, 228 East 48th Street.JPG|thumb|upright=1.35|New York, 228 East 48th Street (center), Kurt Vonnegut's house from 1973 to 2007]]
After ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' was published, Vonnegut embraced the fame and financial security that attended its release. He was hailed as a hero of the burgeoning anti-war movement in the United States, was invited to speak at numerous rallies, and gave college [[commencement address]]es around the country.{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=10}} In addition to briefly teaching at [[Harvard University]] as a lecturer in [[creative writing]] in 1970, Vonnegut taught at the [[City College of New York]] as a distinguished professor during the 1973–1974 academic year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/profile/100002675801 |title=Marquis Biographies Online |website=Marquis Biographies Online |access-date=December 2, 2017 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=March 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312222220/http://search.marquiswhoswho.com/logon |url-status=live }}</ref> He was later elected vice president of the [[National Institute of Arts and Letters]] and given honorary degrees by, among others, [[Indiana University]] and [[Bennington College]]. Vonnegut also wrote a play called ''[[Happy Birthday, Wanda June]]'', which opened on October 7, 1970, at New York's [[Theatre de Lys]]. Receiving mixed reviews, it closed on March 14, 1971. In 1972, [[Universal Pictures]] adapted ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' into [[Slaughterhouse-Five (film)|a film]], which the author said was "flawless".{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=11}}

{{quote box
| align=right
| title=Requiem (ending)
| halign=center
| quote=<poem>When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here.</poem>
|salign=right|source=Kurt Vonnegut,<br /> ''[[A Man Without a Country]]'', 2005{{sfn|Smith|2007}}}}

Vonnegut's difficulties in his personal life thereafter materialized in numerous ways, including the painfully slow progress made on his next novel, the darkly comical ''[[Breakfast of Champions]]''. In 1971, he stopped writing the novel altogether.{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=11}} When it was finally released in 1973, it was panned critically. In Thomas S.&nbsp;Hischak's book ''American Literature on Stage and Screen'', ''Breakfast of Champions'' was called "funny and outlandish", but reviewers noted that it "lacks substance and seems to be an exercise in literary playfulness".{{sfn|Hischak|2012|p=31}} Vonnegut's 1976 novel ''[[Slapstick (novel)|Slapstick]]'', which meditates on the relationship between him and his sister (Alice), met a similar fate. In ''The New York Times''<nowiki />'s review of ''Slapstick'', [[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] said that Vonnegut "seems to be putting less effort into [storytelling] than ever before" and that "it still seems as if he has given up storytelling after all".{{sfn|Lehmann-Haupt|1976}} At times, Vonnegut was disgruntled by the personal nature of his detractors' complaints.{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=11}}

In subsequent years, his popularity resurged as he published several satirical books, including ''[[Jailbird (novel)|Jailbird]]'' (1979), ''[[Deadeye Dick]]'' (1982), ''[[Galápagos (novel)|Galápagos]]'' (1985), ''[[Bluebeard (Vonnegut novel)|Bluebeard]]'' (1987), and ''[[Hocus Pocus (novel)|Hocus Pocus]]'' (1990).{{sfn|Sumner|2014}} Although he remained a prolific writer in the 1980s, Vonnegut struggled with depression and attempted suicide in 1984.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Vonnegut |title=Kurt Vonnegut |work=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=May 24, 2018 |archive-date=May 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180524225927/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Vonnegut |url-status=live }}</ref> Two years later, Vonnegut was seen by a younger generation when he played himself in [[Rodney Dangerfield]]'s film ''[[Back to School]]''.{{sfn|Marvin|2002|p=12}} The last of Vonnegut's fourteen novels, ''[[Timequake]]'' (1997), was, as [[University of Detroit]] history professor and Vonnegut biographer [[Gregory Sumner]] said, "a reflection of an aging man facing mortality and testimony to an embattled faith in the resilience of human awareness and agency".{{sfn|Sumner|2014}} Vonnegut's final book, a collection of essays entitled ''[[A Man Without a Country]]'' (2005), became a bestseller.{{sfn|Smith|2007}}