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