Kurt Vonnegut was born on November 11, 1922, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He passed away at the age of 85, on April 11, 2007. Kurt's parents worked hard, and both his grandfather and father were architects. His grandfather was the founder of Vonnegut Hardware Company in Indianapolis and was all about hard work and labor. Kurt Vonnegut majored in chemistry and was very interested in writing and graphic arts, which made it hard for him to connect with his father. Kurt decided to attend the University of Cornell after graduating from Shortridge High School in May of 1940. Vonnegut developed an early understanding for his writing ability, when he became the editor for The Cornell Daily Sun. Instead of following his passion for writing, he fell into his father's ways and enlisted in the U.S. Army to study vastly about mechanical engineering. To make matters worse, a couple of years after being enlisted, his mother committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills on Mother's Day of 1944. This was the same year Vonnegut got involved as a soldier in World War II, and has many memorable experiences on the battlefield and as a pioneer of war. It is here that Kurt develops many of the ideas and viewpoints he will use as an author in his future pieces of literature.
After the dreadful war, the first move that Kurt Vonnegut makes, with his very successful post-war career, is to attend the University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology. In addition to returning to school,