Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured Americaâs attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him, in the words of The New York Times, as âa true artistâ with the publication of Catâs Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, âone of the best living American writers.â Mr. Vonnegut passed away in April 2007.