Novelist and writer Kurt Vonnegut died Wednesday night in New York City. Vonnegut was a pioneering, influential force in 20th-Century American literature, penning such masterpieces as "Slaughterhouse Five," "Cat's Cradle," and "Breakfast of Champions." His best-selling 2005 collection of short articles, "A Man Without a Country," pinpointed the Bushies as "upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography." A fighter for freedom of expression, Vonnegut was a member of the PEN writer's aid group, the ACLU, and American Humanist Association. He was 84.
