Vonnegut Kurt: biography and work of the great American writer

Perhaps today it is difficult to meet a man who would not have been known to Vonnegut Kurt. And even if you have not read any of his books, you've probably heard quotes from his works. We suggest today to get acquainted with the life and work of this great American writer.

Kurt Vonnegut: Biography

The future world-famous writer comes from a family of German immigrants. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was born in 1922, November 11, in the American city of Indianapolis, which in the future often became the scene of his works. His father was one of the co-owners of a construction company, and his mother came from a wealthy family of an American millionaire brewer. Kurt had older brothers and sister - Bernard and Alice.

During the Great Depression, the financial situation of the Vonnegut family was greatly shaken. At the same time, Kurt's mother began to show the first symptoms of a severe mental illness, which eventually led to her committing suicide. This happened in 1944. This fact greatly shocked the young Kurt. After graduation, Vonnegut Jr., at the insistence of his father, enrolled in the chemistry department of Cornell University. However, this subject was of little interest to him, and all the time the boy gave his work to the student newspaper.

The Second World War

After the United States announced its participation in World War II, the young man volunteered for the US Army. As a result, he was transferred to the University of Tennessee, where he studied mechanical engineering. After that, Vonnegut Kurt went to the front. In late 1944, the young man, along with other American soldiers, was captured by the Germans. He was sent to a labor camp in Dresden (Germany). At night and during the air raids on the city of Vonnegut and other prisoners were locked in the building of an abandoned slaughterhouse. Kurt was lucky to survive after the air raids on Dresden in early 1945. Then the whole city was almost completely destroyed. According to the estimates of Kurt himself, who participated in the analysis of the rubble, at least 250 thousand people were killed. The experiences of the young men connected with this terrible catastrophe are reflected in several of his works in the future. Among them, a special place is occupied by the book "Slaughter number five, or the Crusade of the Children", which brought the writer real glory.

Postwar Life

After the war, Vonnegut Kurt returned to the United States and entered postgraduate (anthropology) at the University of Chicago. In parallel with his studies, he worked as a police reporter at the Chicago news office. In 1947, the young man made an attempt to defend his Master's thesis on the topic of the unstable relationship between good and evil in fairy tales. However, this work was unanimously rejected by all teachers. As a result, the Department of the Faculty of Chicago awarded Vonnegut with the title of Master. But it happened only in 1971. The reason for this was the writer's novel "The Cradle for a Cat" (1963).

After the failure of his first magistor dissertation, Vonnegut Kurt goes to the city of Schenectady, where he is employed by the public relations department of a large American corporation "General Electric".

Kurt Vonnegut: books, writer's career

The experiences experienced by Vonnegut in his youth formed the basis of his first work. It was a fantastic novel called Utopia 14. In his book, published in 1952, the author paints a very unsightly picture of the future, when all the work on earth is performed by machines, and a person turns out to be unnecessary. Subsequent works of Vonnegut are also written in the genre of science fiction: "Sirens of Titan" (1959) and "Cradle for a cat" (1963). The real world recognition came to Kurt thanks to a work based on real events, called "Slaughterhouse number five, or the Children's Crusade", written in 1969. The book is devoted to the bombing of German Dresden by British and United States aircraft in February 1945, during which the city was almost completely destroyed, and a significant part of its population died.

Also, Kurt Vonnegut's pen includes such remarkable books as "The Farce, or Down with Solitude," "Small Not Missing," "Recidivist," "Galapagos", "Bluebeard," "Vremetryasenie" and others.

Kurt Vonnegut: quotes

The most well-known sayings of this man include the following phrases: "On what scientists would not work, they still have weapons", "And though people are stupid and cruel, look at what a beautiful day!", "Maturity is the ability to realize the limit Their capabilities. "

last years of life

Kurt Vonnegut was very keen on his writing activities and did not stop working, even reaching a very old age. This famous American author died on April 11, 2007. The cause of death was the consequences of head injury, which the 84-year-old writer received as a result of the fall. Despite the fact that this great humanist and thinker has been dead for several years, Kurt Vonnegut, whose books are still taking the minds of readers around the world, will forever remain in the memory and hearts of millions of people from all over the world.