Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007) was a prisoner of war in Dresden, Gernany in February, 1945 when allied forces delivered the most massive bombing raid of World War II. Over three days the ancient city famous for making delicate china and packed with over 200,000 refugees was bombarded with high explosive and incendiary bombs. Somewhere between 25,000 and 125,000 people were killed during the raids, it's hard to tell exactly how many because thousands of bodies were incinerated and never found.
The 23 year old corporal Vonnegut survived this bombing raid less than a year after the suicide of his mother. He was liberated by Soviet troops in May, 1945. Returning to the States, the young war veteran attended the University of Chicago and worked for a while as a crime reporter for City News Bureau of Chicago before moving on to the public relations department at General Electric. Before finally achieving success as a novelist, Vonnegut worked for the correspondence school Famous Writers of America.
In 1950 his first short story appeared in Collier's Magazine. Report on the Barnhouse Effect was about the "first superweapon with a conscience." His first short story was also his first anti-war story. Vonnegut wrote dozens of short stories through the fifties and earned a reputation as a Science Fiction author. His first novels Player Piano, Sirens of Titan and Cat's Cradle, were loosly catagorized as Science Fiction, but some of his best work Mother Night, Hocus Pocus, Breakfast of Champions had little to do with the genre.
In 1969 Vonnegut immortalized his experiences in Dresden with his masterpiece Slaughterhouse Five or the Children's Crusade. By the time I, and a whole generation began to read his work in the 70s Vonnegut had reached the status of a cultural icon.
The memorable characters that populated Vonnegut's world and connected the stories of his various books became our friends and our teachers. Kilgore Trout, Elliott Rosewater, Howard W. Campbell, Billy Pilgrim and Montana Wildhack, the children of Dr. Felix Hoenniker showed us what they were made of through the most trying times. They showed us what we could be and they did it with a smile.
Vonnegut's humor and his humanity and his beautiful spare language entertained and inspired us. We will miss him. The world will be a little sadder place without him. But all we can really say is, "So long, Kurt. Thanks." And so it goes.
Dimension X April 22, 1950 Report on the Barnhouse Effect
Please Read God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut: An Interview with the Author at 80.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70164,00.html
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