Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Dead at 84

Best Known For Dark Satire In "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle"

(CBS/AP)  In books such as "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle," and "Hocus Pocus," Kurt Vonnegut mixed the bitter and funny with a touch of the profound.

Vonnegut, regarded by many critics as a key influence in shaping 20th-century American literature, died Wednesday at 84. He had suffered brain injuries after a recent fall at his Manhattan home, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

In a statement, Norman Mailer hailed Vonnegut as "a marvelous writer with a style that remained undeniably and imperturbably his own. ... I would salute him — our own Mark Twain."

"He was sort of like nobody else," said fellow author Gore Vidal. "Kurt was never dull."

Gay Talese, a best-selling author who knew Vonnegut well, told CBS News correspondent Richard Schlesinger that he never heard Vonnegut "express a bit of vengeance, resentment ... although in his work there was that real keen sense of hypocrisy."

"He was not a mean man,” Talese added. "And boy, that says something for writers."

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Photos: The Life Of Kurt Vonnegut

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Vonnegut's works — more than a dozen novels plus short stories, essays and plays — contained elements of social commentary, science fiction and autobiography. Hours after his death, "Slaughterhouse-Five" had jumped to the top 10 on book sales site Amazon.com, while "Cat's Cradle" and the nonfiction "A Man Without a Country" had reached the top 40.

Vonnegut's longtime friend and manager, Donald Farber, said there would be no public memorial, only a private gathering of family and friends. He also said other Vonnegut books were likely to come out, but declined to offer specifics.

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim ("Slaughterhouse-Five") and Eliot Rosewater ("God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater") as transparent vehicles for his points of view.

He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

"He was a man who combined a wicked sense of humor and sort of steady moral compass, who was always sort of looking at the big picture of the things that were most important," said Joel Bleifuss, editor of In These Times, a liberal magazine based in Chicago that featured Vonnegut articles.

Some of Vonnegut's books were banned and burned for alleged obscenity. He took on censorship as an active member of the PEN writers' aid group and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The American Humanist Association, which promotes individual freedom, rational thought and scientific skepticism, made him its honorary president.

Vonnegut said the villains in his books were never individuals, but culture, society and history, which he said were making a mess of the planet.

"I like to say that the 51st state is the state of denial," he told The Associated Press in 2005. "It's as though a huge comet were heading for us and nobody wants to talk about it. We're just about to run out of petroleum and there's nothing to replace it."

Despite his commercial success, Vonnegut battled depression throughout his life, and in 1984, he attempted suicide with pills and alcohol, joking later about how he botched the job.

"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

[ms38654ob]

So it goes...

[deadanimal]

ms38654ob,

i'm glad your post is first. it's very appropriate. that was the very first thing that popped into my head as i read the headline of Vonnegut's death.

sad day.

[meyergd]

My Ph.D. advisor was a close friend of Kurt Vonnegut's during his time as writer-in-residence at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. I was privileged to meet with the two for beers in 1968 when Vonnegut was working on both Welcome to the Monkeyhouse and Slaughterhouse-Five. Vonnegut was age 45-46, sharp as a tack, and I was overwhelmed. I simply listened to the two of them talk and tucked it all away. Now I am a "geezer" myself and I understand much better the wisdom to which I was so privileged to hear. My departure from Iowa City saved my advisor's sanity. We were so fortunate that Kurt Vonnegut graced us with his presence this time through.

[randalds]

A giant of an author. Though I have no doubt he would laugh at the idea his passing should be marked as one would the passing of a Mark Twain. He had no contemporary equal in modern times.

Funny but his passing makes me want to gather some good friends around, drink lots of cheap wine, smoke some of nature's own and sit up all night talking about his books (with Dylan on the record player of course), just like in the early 70's. Gawd I suddenly feel a little older.

[randalds]

What's truly disgusting is that CBS puts garbage like the Anna Nicole Smith story in the "real" news section and puts the passing of a legendary author in "Entertainment". It's an slap in the face to Vonnegut and one can only conclude that the CBS editors are all either younger the 40 or functionally illiterate. Either that or they are those few book critics who just didn't understand Kurt. Shame for them and shame on them.

[johngorrind]

It's interesting to read what Vonnegut's peers and contemporaries had to say. Mailer said he was our Mark Twain. Talese said he wasn't a mean guy. Vidal said he was unique and imaginative. Wolfe said he the only writer close to being our Voltaire.

In any regard, he knew how to use the power of the pen. As much as depression haunted him and he ultimately philosophized that "life is a crock," he had the good sense and courage to rally both his imagination, humor, outrage and pour in into fiction that jousted with the murderous elite of the planet.

Few writers have been able to balance their dismal personal views on life with a higher moral calling and infuse them to great effect. It's one helluva person who can do that- and he is a great role model for anyone aspiring to either write or strike some compromise with their own despair.