Kurt Vonnegut endured a lot in his life to become one of America’s most distinctive literary voices. Born in 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana, Vonnegut grew up during the Great Depression, an experience that rattled his once-wealthy family life and reshaped his worldview. After studying biochemistry at Cornell University, he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II. There, he was captured by German soldiers and survived the Allied bombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war — a scarring ordeal that Vonnegut later recounted in his seminal, semi-autobiographical novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).

Vonnegut’s path to literary fame wasn’t straightforward. After returning from the war, he worked as a teacher and publicist for General Electric while publishing short stories in magazines — most of which were later republished in classic collections including Welcome to the Monkey House. His work defied convention, mixing science fiction with dark humor and existential musings on humanity, and his strong moral compass and antiwar sentiment resonated with an increasingly curious counterculture generation. After struggling with depression for years, Vonnegut tried but failed to take his own life in 1984. He died in 2007 at age 84.