Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis on the 11th of November 1922. He descended from a long line of German Americans whose family fortune rested on the Vonnegut Hardware Company founded by his great-grandfather Clemens.
Kurt Vonnegut was captured by German forces on the 22nd of December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge. He survived the firebombing of Dresden on the 13th of February 1945 by taking refuge in a meat locker three stories underground.
Ida Young served as the family's African-American cook and housekeeper during the first decade of his life. Vonnegut credited her with raising him and giving him decent moral instruction that remained an influence throughout his life.
Slaughterhouse-Five was released in 1969 after nearly twenty years of writing about his war experiences. The novel rocketed Kurt Vonnegut to fame and rose immediately to the top of The New York Times Best Seller list.
Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007 shortly before the publication of his final book A Man Without a Country which became a bestseller in 2005. His personal difficulties included depression and an attempted suicide in 1984.