Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
(November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007)
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was an American SF writer who liked to pretend that he didn't write SF. He did, however, contribute to Earl Kemp’s Who Killed Science Fiction?
In a writing career of over 50 years, Vonnegut published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of nonfiction. He is most famous for his satirical, best-selling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). His first published book was the SF novel, Player Piano, in 1952.
Vonnegut’s 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle, with such concepts as the karass, granfalloon and Bokononism, was hugely influential on fandom, inspiring many catchphrases, interlineations and fanzine titles.
God Bless You, Mr Rosewater (1965), though technically not science fiction, contains numerous in-joke references to it, and introduces sf writer Kilgore Trout, “the author of eighty-seven paperback books, was a very poor man, and unknown outside the science-fiction field.” Trout featured in several other Vonnegut works as well as those of other writers, served as a penname for one book by Philip José Farmer (to Vonnegut’s displeasure) and periodically shows up as a pseudonymous goh at cons.
Entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 2015 — Science Fiction Hall of Fame (posthumous)
| Person | 1922—2007 |
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