Things You Might Not Know About Stephen Kings It. Best known as the eccentric author of Slaughterhouse Five and Cats Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut filled his novels, plays, and short stories with irreverence, satire, and wry wit. A page for describing Creator Stephen King. The current dominant author of the horror genre although he prefers not to pigeonhole himself in such a manner. He wrote about dystopian societies, disillusionment with war, and skepticism, particularly connecting with millions of readers in the 1. To celebrate what would have been Vonneguts 9. HE MET HIS FIRST WIFE IN KINDERGARTEN. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1. Vonnegut met his future wife, Jane, in kindergarten. Although they dated as teenagers in high school, their relationship paused when Vonnegut went to Cornell University, dropped out to serve in World War II, and became a prisoner of war in Germany. Promo%20Stuff/A%20Bloody%20Good%20Time/abgtkingcast1.jpg' alt='Stephen King The Stand Cast And Crew' title='Stephen King The Stand Cast And Crew' />After returning to the U. S., he married Jane in 1. The couple had six childrenthree biological and three adoptedbut divorced in 1. HIS MOTHER COMMITTED SUICIDE ON MOTHERS DAY. When Vonnegut was born, his parents were well off. Stephen King The Stand Cast' title='Stephen King The Stand Cast' />Kurt Sr., his father, was an architect and Edith, his mother, was independently wealthy from the brewery that her family owned. But due to Prohibition and the Great Depression, the family struggled to make ends meet, sold their home, and switched their son to a public school. Edith, who suffered from mental illness, became addicted to alcohol and prescription pills. In 1. 94. 4, when Vonnegut came home from military training to celebrate Mothers Day, he found Edith dead. She had committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, and the 2. Vonnegut soon went to Germany to fight in World War II. River-Phoenix-Stand-By-Me-Split.jpg' alt='Stephen King The Stand Cast List' title='Stephen King The Stand Cast List' />In an interview with The Paris Review, Vonnegut remembered his mother as being highly intelligent, cultivated, and a good writer. I only wish shed lived to see my writing career. I only wish shed lived to see all her grandchildren, he said. HE TURNED HIS PRISONER OF WAR EXPERIENCE INTO A BESTSELLING BOOK. Because Vonnegut was flunking his classes at Cornell, he decided to drop out and join the army to fight in World War II. During the Battle of the Bulge, in 1. German forces captured him, along with other American prisoners of war, in Dresden. Forced to work long hours in a malt syrup factory, he slept in a subterranean slaughterhouse. In a letter he later wrote to his family, Vonnegut described the unsanitary conditions, sadistic guards, and measly food rations. After surviving the February 1. Allied bombing of Dresden, in which tens of thousands of people were killed, Vonnegut was forced by his captors to remove jewelry from the corpses before cremating them. One hundred thirty thousand corpses were hidden underground. It was a terribly elaborate Easter egg hunt, he said in his Paris Review interview. Later in 1. 94. 5, Vonnegut got frostbite and was discharged from the army he earned a Purple Heart. Over two decades later, in 1. Vonnegut published the bestselling novel Slaughterhouse Five, which gave readers a fictionalized account of his wartime imprisonment. He later said that only one person benefited from the raid in Dresden him. I got three dollars for each person killed. I ts summer, were supposed to be having fun. This isnt fun its scary and disgusting It, Stephen Kings 1986 novel about a shapeshifting. Imagine that, he said. CONTRARY TO RUMORS, HE WASNT FRAT BUDDIES WITH DR. SEUSS. An urban legend suggests that Vonnegut and Theodor Geisel a. Dr. Seuss were college friends who spent time together in the same fraternity. But according to Snopes, the tale of Geisel and Vonneguts friendship is greatly exaggerated that is, its false. The two authors probably never met, and they didnt attend any of the same schools plus, Geisel was 1. Vonnegut. Geisel did, however, once visit a friend who belonged to Cornells Delta Upsilon fraternity. Geisel drew a mural on the wall of the fraternitys basement, and Vonnegut saw his drawings at Cornell a decade later as a student. HE HELD A SERIES OF ODD JOBS TO SUPPORT HIS FAMILY. In 1. 94. 7, Vonnegut began working in public relations for General Electric, an experience that he drew upon to write Cats Cradle. He wrote articles and short stories for magazines such as Colliers and The Saturday Evening Post, and his first novel, Player Piano, was published in 1. Vonnegut then briefly wrote for Sports Illustrated, managed a Saab car dealership in Massachusetts the first in the U. S., and worked as an English teacher. HE ADOPTED HIS SISTERS THREE KIDS. In the late 1. 95. Vonneguts sister, Alice, died of cancer and Alices husband died in a train accident within the span of a few days. Although Vonnegut already had three children with his wife, he adopted his sisters three sons. Since he now had six children to support, Vonnegut spent even more time writing to earn money. HE ATTEMPTED SUICIDE. Although Slaughterhouse Five made him a famous, bestselling author, Vonnegut struggled with depression in the midst of his literary success. After getting divorced in 1. New York City and had trouble writing. His son became psychotic, and although he married his second wife in 1. In 1. 98. 4, he tried to kill himself by overdosing on sleeping pills and alcohol, an experience he wrote about in 1. Fates Worse Than Death, a collection of essays. HE GRADED ALL HIS BOOKS. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Vonnegut discussed his grading system for his books he also wrote about this system in Palm Sunday, a collection of his works published in 1. He gave himself an A for his writing in Cats Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five but wasnt as generous with Happy Birthday, Wanda June or Slapstick, which both received Ds. HE LOVED WATCHING CHEERS. In 1. 99. 1, while speaking to the press to promote his Showtime television show Vonneguts Monkey House, he extolled the virtues of the NBC show Cheers. Id rather have written Cheers than anything Ive written, he said. Although he viewed television in general with skepticism, he made an exception for the long running sitcom, calling it televisions one comic masterpiece Every time anybody opens his or her mouth on that show, its significant. Its funny, he said. HE TRIED TO STOP SMOKING BUT GAINED TOO MUCH WEIGHT. A lifelong smoker, Vonnegut began smoking cigarettes as a young teenager. Interviews with the author described his chain smoking, his preferred brand Pall Mall, and his frequent coughing and wheezing. Vonnegut admitted that he quit smoking twice, but neither attempt succeeded long term. Once I did it cold turkey, and turned into Santa Claus. I became roly poly. I was approaching 2. Paris Review. The second time, his lack of smoking made him unbearably opinionated and curtailed his writing time. I didnt even write letters anymore. I had made a bad trade, evidently. So I started smoking again, he said. THANKS TO CATS CRADLE, HE FINALLY GOT HIS MASTERS DEGREE. Games Incursion 2 The Artifact Hacked Zombie more. While studying anthropology as a young man at the University of Chicago, Vonnegut wrote his graduate thesis comparing 1. Cubist painters to Native American artists. Vonnegut later explained that the faculty rejected his dissertation, and he dropped out of his masters program there I left Chicago without writing a dissertationand without a degree. All my ideas for dissertations had been rejected, and I was broke, so I took a job as a P. R. man for General Electric in Schenectady. But the quality of his novel Cats Cradle, published in 1. University of Chicago faculty to accept the novel as his dissertation. So 2. 0 years after he dropped out, Vonnegut finally earned his masters degree in anthropology. HE HAS OVER 2. 10,0. TWITTER FOLLOWERS. Although Vonnegut died in 2. A Twitter account dedicated to the writer tweets his quotes several times a day to more than 2.