Joseph Heller

Joseph Heller is an American author who has achieved much success in the 20th century. His most popular and acclaimed work is his novel Catch-22, which was published in 1961. The novel is a satirical look at the absurdity of war, bureaucracy, and the military in general.

Joseph Heller was born in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised in an observant Jewish household by his parents Isaac and Lena Heller. Heller attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, where he excelled in literature and composition classes. Afterwards, he attended the University of Southern California, where he studied English and philosophy. He briefly attended New York University, but soon returned to USC to pursue his degree.

Heller enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 and served as a bombardier during World War II. The experiences he had during his wartime served as the basis for the satirical elements of his book Catch-22. After the war, he attended Oxford University as a Fulbright Scholar and later graduated from Columbia University.

Heller's novel Catch-22 was published in 1961. The novel follows Yossarian, a US Air Force squadron commander, and focuses on his attempts to survive the absurdities of wartime. The book was a great success and has been praised for its social commentary about war, bureaucracy, and military life. It has even been used as a term to describe a difficult situation in which a person cannot win, regardless of the choice they make.

In addition to his work in literature, Heller was also an editor and professor. In the 1960s, he edited a collection of short stories titled “For No Good Reason” and later wrote a number of short stories and essays for The New Yorker magazine. He also taught writing courses at various universities and was a professor of English and Creative Writing at Yale University.

Heller published several other novels throughout his career and was even considered for the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. These novels include Good As Gold, Something Happened, and God Knows. Heller was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992, but ultimately did not win.

Heller passed away in 1999 at the age of seventy-five. Despite his death, his legacy lives on through his works and the many readers who continue to enjoy them today. Joseph Heller’s writings are a great example of satire and social commentary about the absurdities of life. His works are still widely read and appreciated to this day, making him an important and influential figure in American literature.