Kurt Vonnegut Jr. ( Nov 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published 14 novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works, with further collections being published after his death. Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano (1952). In the nearly 20 years that followed, he published several novels that were well regarded, two of which; The Sirens of Titan (1959) and Cat's Cradle (1963) were nominated for the Hugo Award for best novel. He published a short story collection titled Welcome to the Monkey House (1968). His breakthrough was his commercially and critically successful sixth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). After its release, Slaughterhouse-Five went to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list, thrusting Vonnegut into fame. Less