Kurt Vonnegut

Born: 11th November 1922, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Died: 11th April 2007, New York City, New York, USA. German-American cult novelist & author of works such as 'Slaughterhouse-Five', 'Cat's Cradle', 'Breakfast Of Champions' etc. Vonnegut also referenced the inspirational but much misunderstood novelist Kilgore Trout in a number of his works, resulting in the publication of the quasi-science fiction pulp 'Venus On The Half-Shell' by Trout. Trout was purely fictional and the book was actually written in 1974 by Philip José Farmer [author of 'The World Of Tiers' series and others], listing 16 other novels by Trout. Such spoofs, or 'Foma', are much a part of the underlying humor in Vonnegut's work, as is evidenced in his 1975 publication 'Wampeters, Foma & Granfaloons'.