Kurt Vonnegut Died Too Soon

It's dangerous to begin a biography with what amounts to an advertisement for oneself. "Someone else could cobble together a so-so version of your life just by mining what's stored in library boxes and electronic files. And it will happen soon, I think," Charles J. Shields writes in the introduction to "And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life," quoting a note he sent his then-potential-subject in summer 2006. "But I'm the guy for the job — for doing it right, that is. … And I'm a damn good researcher and writer."