Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller, (b. May 1, 1923,
Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 12, 1999,
East Hampton, N.Y.), American writer
whose novel Catch-22 (1961) was one of
the most significant works of protest
literature to appear after World War II.
The satirical novel was a popular
success, and a film version appeared in
1970.
During World War II, Heller flew 60
combat missions as a bombardier with the
U.S. Air Force in Europe. After
receiving an M.A. at Columbia University
in 1949, he studied at the University of
Oxford (1949–50) as a Fulbright scholar.
He taught English at Pennsylvania State
University (1950–52) and worked as an
advertising copywriter for the magazines
Time (1952–56) and Look (1956–58) and as
promotion manager for McCall’s
(1958–61), meanwhile writing Catch-22 in
his spare time.
Released to mixed reviews, Catch-22
developed a cult following with its dark
surrealism. Centring on the antihero
Captain John Yossarian, stationed at an
airstrip on a Mediterranean island
during World War II, the novel portrays
the airman’s desperate attempts to stay
alive. The “catch” in Catch-22 involves
a mysterious Air Force regulation that
asserts that a man is considered insane
if he willingly continues to fly
dangerous combat missions; but, if he
makes the necessary formal request to be
relieved of such missions, the very act
of making the request proves that he is
sane and therefore ineligible to be
relieved. The term catch-22 thereafter
entered the English language as a
reference to a proviso that trips one up
no matter which way one turns.
Heller’s later novels, including
Something Happened (1974), an
unrelievedly pessimistic novel, Good as
Gold (1979), a satire on life in
Washington, D.C., and God Knows (1984),
a wry, contemporary-vernacular monologue
in the voice of the biblical King David,
were less successful. Closing Time, a
sequel to Catch-22, appeared in 1994.
Heller also wrote an autobiography, Now
and Then: From Coney Island to Here
(1998), and his dramatic work includes
the play We Bombed in New Haven (1968).
