Profile Text
May 5, 2003 – NYC – Vonnegut and wife arriving at 18th Annual Literacy Partners Gala, An Evening of Readings at Lincoln Center. ***Digital Image*** Photo Credit: Anthony G. Moore/Photorazzi
Date of Birth: November 11, 1922
Place of Birth: Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
Date of Death: April 11, 2007
Place of Death: Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
Ethnicity: German
Kurt Vonnegut, or Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was an American author. He wrote the novels Player Piano , The Sirens of Titan , Mother Night , Cat’s Cradle , God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater ; Slaughterhouse-Five , Breakfast of Champions , Slapstick , Jailbird , Deadeye Dick , Galápagos , Bluebeard , Hocus Pocus , and Timequake ; the short fiction collections Canary in a Cat House , Welcome to the Monkey House , Bagombo Snuff Box , God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian ; Armageddon in Retrospect , Look at the Birdie , While Mortals Sleep , We Are What We Pretend to Be , Sucker’s Portfolio , and Complete Stories ; the plays Fortitude , Happy Birthday, Wanda June ; Between Time and Timbuktu , and L’Histoire du Soldat ; and the non-fiction works Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons ; Palm Sunday , Fates Worse than Death , A Man Without a Country , If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young ; Vonnegut by the Dozen , and Kurt Vonnegut: Letters .
He was the son of Edith Sophia (Lieber) and Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., who was an architect and Indianapolis architectural lecturer. His brother was atmospheric scientist Bernard Vonnegut. Kurt was married to photographer and author Jill Krementz, until his death. He had three children, including pediatrician and memoirist Mark Vonnegut and painter Edith Vonnegut, with his former wife Jane Marie Cox; and a daughter with Jill. He and Jane also adopted his deceased sister Alice’s three children.
Kurt’s paternal grandfather was Bernard Vonnegut I (the son of Clemens Vonnegut and Katarina/Katharina Blank). Bernard was born in Indiana, to German parents. He was a lecturer and architect. Clemens was born in Münster, Westphalia, and was an immigrant businessperson, who founded the Vonnegut Hardware Company in Indiana. Katarina was born in Urloffen, Baden-Württemberg, and was the daughter of Johann Georg Blank, Jr. and Anna Maria Oser.
Kurt’s paternal grandmother was Nanette Schnull (the daughter of Heinrich Friedrich “Henry” Schnull and Mathilda/Matilde/Matilda Schramm). Nanette was from a wealthy German-American family. She was born in Indiana. Heinrich was born in Porta Westfalica, Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Schnuell, from Hausberge, and of Ernestine Wilhelmina Bierman. Mathilda was the daughter of German parents, Jacob Schramm and Julie/Julia Junghans.
Kurt’s maternal grandfather was Albert Lieber (the son of Peter Lieber and Sophia St. André). Albert was born in Indiana, to German parents. He was a brewer who was a millionaire. Peter was born in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, the son of Johann Richard Lieber and Clara Carolina Melbeck. Peter also had roots in Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, Alsace. Sophia was born in Freiburg, Baden-Wurttemberg.
Kurt’s maternal grandmother was Alice Sophia Barus (the daughter of Carl Barus and Alice Mollmann). Kurt’s grandmother Alice was born in Ohio. Carl was born in Opole, Poland. Kurt’s great-grandmother Alice was born in Königreich, Lower Saxony, Germany, the daughter of The Rev. Dietrich Hermann Wilhelm Möllmann and Venna Adelheid Schulte.
Source: Genealogy of Kurt Vonnegut – https://www.geni.com