Kurt vonnegut biography

–Adapted from Critical Companion to Kurt Vonnegut:  A Literary Reference to His Life and Work by Susan Farrell. ((New York: Facts on File Press, 2008).

Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 11, 1922, the third child of Kurt Vonnegut, Sr.

and Edith Lieber Vonnegut. Both Vonnegut’s father, Kurt Sr., and his grandfather, Bernard Vonnegut, were local architects in Indianapolis.

Kurt vonnegut biography book

While the family was comfortably well-to-do during Vonnegut’s earliest childhood, they suffered financial setbacks during the depression years. As a result, Vonnegut attended public schools even though his older siblings had received private school educations.

But Vonnegut thrived at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, where he played clarinet in the school band and served as a writer and editor for the school’s daily newspaper.

After graduating from high school in 1940, Vonnegut enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York,