Kurt Vonnegut

After returning from World War II, he tied the nuptial knot with his childhood sweetheart, Jane Marie Cox. The couple lived at Barnstable Massachusetts. They were blessed with three children

The relationship did not last long and the two separated in 1970. Same year, he began living in with a photographer, Jill Kremetz.

He was legally divorced from his first wife in 1979. He eventually married Kremetz.

Kurt Vonnegut was one of the three children born to Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., and Edith. He had a brother Bernard and a sister, Alice. His parents had a German American ancestry.

Academically proficient, he completed his preliminary education from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis in 1940. Thereafter, he went to Cornell University, where he majored in Chemistry.

It was while at the university that he served as the Assistant Managing Editor and Associate Editor of The Cornell Daily Sun. He also became a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

Later on, he conscripted himself in the United States Army. During his years of service, he was transferred to the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee to study mechanical engineering.

Post completing his studies, he served in Europe as a part of the 423rd Infantry Regiment and 106th Infantry Division, fighting the Battle of Bulge. While serving, he was captured and imprisoned.

He was a witness to the firebombing which took place in Dresden in February 1945, disrupting the entire city. Luckily for him, he was one amongst the few prisoners of war who survived the attack

Post war, he enrolled at the University of Chicago to study anthropology. Meanwhile, he also took up work at the City News Bureau of Chicago. However, he did not continue the same for long and left it to join as a public relations officer for General Electric.

He doubled up as a technical writer for GE and was known for giving much of himself into the work. In his free time, he volunteered as a fire-fighter in the Alplaus Volunteer Fire Department.

In addition to this, he wrote many of his short stories during this time. His first ever short story published was ‘Report on the Barnhouse Effect’ on February 11, 1950, in the edition of Collier's. the story was later reprinted in the short story collection, Welcome to the Monkey House.

This acclaimed writer was considering abandoning writing altogether and taking a teaching job instead, when ‘'Cat's Cradle’ became a best-seller.