Kurt Vonnegut sadly has passed away.

He was my favorite writer.

"Slaughterhouse-Five'' "Cat's Cradle'' "Player Piano" "The Sirens of Titan'' "Canary in a Cat House'' "Mother Night"

19 novels, many short stories, essays, plays, religious skeptic, humanist, and a socialist. Vonnegut battled depression all his life, and in the 80's, attempted suicide.

In World War II, he was a POW during the Battle of the Bulge, held in Dresden where "friendly" bombs killed thousands and destroyed the city.

I remember seeing the film, "Slaughterhouse-Five'' on late night TV and being blown away. I think I was in the 6th Grade and I went to the library and found a 16mm documentary about him that I watched. I checked out all his books and once the librarian contacted my mother with concern about my reading choices.

I read everything of his that I could, even stuff he didn't write, but others claimed he had.

He made it to 84 without killing himself unlike his mother.

He was my hero!