Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works, and further collections have been published after his death.Vonnegut attended Cornell University but withdrew in January 1943 and enlisted in the US Army. As part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee. He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II and was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge and interned in Dresden. After the war, Vonnegut attended the University of Chicago and worked as a night reporter for the City News Bureau. His first novel, "Player Piano," was published in 1952. He is best known for his sixth novel, "Slaughterhouse-Five," which was published in 1969.Vonnegut died on 11 April 2007.