(photo: Fred R. Conrad, NYT)
Critically acclaimed, wildy popular, wholly original writer and activist Kurt Vonneget died today at the age of 84. From AP:

“The firebombing of Dresden explains absolutely nothing about why I write what I write and am what I am,” Vonnegut wrote in “Fates Worse Than Death,” his 1991 autobiography of sorts. But he spent 23 years struggling to write about the ordeal, which he survived by huddling with other POW’s inside an underground meat locker labeled slaughterhouse-five.

“We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard … and too damn cheap,” he once suggested carving into a wall on the Grand Canyon, as a message for flying-saucer creatures.

Vonnegut Web, run by Chris Huber in Durham, NC, is pretty comprehensive, including a complete biblio page and links to many interviews (although as of this writing, the site still says 1922 – under his name.)
Here’s Vonnegut’s web site.
Did you know: The asteroid 25399 Vonnegut is named in his honor.
Here’s the Wiki page.
Read his articles for In These Times here.