Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels, publishing fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays and five nonfiction works over fifty years. Captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, he survived the Allied bombing of Dresden while a prisoner of war held in a meat locker, an experience that became the basis of his commercial and critical breakthrough, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), whose anti-war sentiment resonated amid the Vietnam War. Earlier novels included The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Cat's Cradle (1963), both nominated for the Hugo Award, and he continued publishing essays and short fiction, including A Man Without a Country (2005), later in his career.