Heller, Joseph (1923-1999), was an American novelist who established his reputation with the comic novel Catch-22 (1961). The title describes the accumulated absurdities that characterize many complex organizations. The novel is set during World War II (1939-1945) and describes the misadventures of Yossarian, a U.S. officer. His ways of retaining his identity depend on an ability to maneuver within an illogical military system. Closing Time (1994) is a sequel to the novel.
In Something Happened (1974), Heller imagined the psychological pressures faced by an American business executive. Good As Gold (1979) describes the personal and professional problems of an American college professor. God Knows (1984) is a comic novel written in the form of an autobiography of the Biblical leader King David. With his friend Speed Vogel, Heller wrote No Laughing Matter (1986), an autobiographical account of Heller’s battle against a paralyzing illness. Picture This (1988) is a novel about the Dutch painter Rembrandt that is also a meditation about art. Heller wrote an autobiography, Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here (1998).
Heller was born on May 1, 1923, in the Brooklyn section of New York City. He died on Dec. 12, 1999. Two books by Heller were published after his death. Portrait of an Artist, As an Old Man (2000) portrays an elderly writer struggling to find material for one final novel. Heller’s early short fiction was collected in Catch As Catch Can (2003).
See also Catch-22 .
