Beloved Crazy Old Man Dies at 84

Last night in Manhattan, Crazy Old Man (and author) Kurt Vonnegut died in Manhattan.

I have been reading Vonnegut since high school, when I was required to read Slaughterhouse-Five. He has remained one of my top five favorite authors. He was a prolific writer, as a trip to any bookstore's "V" shelf will attest, and through it all his work was insightful, entertaining, and deeply human.

Except for Timequake, which was a bit of a reprint and rehash of older material. And, you know, plus A Man Without a Country, which was written when he had clearly lost either his marbles or respect for his readers because it consists almost entirely of reprints - verbatim - from the aforementioned Timequake.

Still, he was a fantastic writer and I will miss him.

Thanks, Mr. Vonnegut.

From A Man Without a Country

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC

Times obituary here.

Vonnegut slideshow at nytimes.com.

His largely incoherent and curmudgeon-tastic second-to-last TV appearance (on the daily show) after the jump. Video courtesy onegoodmove.