Joseph Heller: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox Writer |
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== Headline text == |
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| name = Joseph Heller |
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| image = |
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| caption = Joseph Heller, photo by Jerry Bauer |
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| birth_date = [[May 1]], [[1923]] <ref name=UXL>"Joseph Heller." ''UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography''. 2003 ed. pg. 870</ref> |
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| birth_place = [[Brooklyn]], [[New York]] <ref name=UXL/> |
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| death_date = [[December 12]], [[1999]] <ref name=UXL/> |
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| death_place = [[Long Island]], [[New York]] <ref name=UXL/> |
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| occupation = Novelist |
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| genre = Fiction |
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| movement = |
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| magnum_opus = ''[[Catch-22]]'' |
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| influences = |
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| influenced = [[Robert Altman]], [[Kurt Vonnegut]] |
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| footnotes = |
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}} |
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== [[BITCH TITS]] == |
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'''Joseph Heller''' ([[May 1]], [[1923]] – [[December 12]], [[1999]]) was an [[United States|American]] [[satirical]] [[novelist]] and [[playwright]]. He wrote the influential ''[[Catch-22]]'' about American servicemen during [[World War II]]. It was this work whose title (which was originally Catch-18) became the term commonly used to express absurdity in choice. |
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Heller is widely regarded as one of the best post-World War satirists. Although he is remembered mostly by his landmark ''Catch-22,'' his works, centered on the lives of various members of the middle classes, remain exemplars of modern satire. |
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==Biography== |
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Joseph Heller was born in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, the son of poor Jewish parents. After graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1941, Heller joined the Twelfth Air Force at age 19. He was stationed in Corsica, where he flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier. It was these experiences that later became the inspiration for his first novel, ''[[Catch-22]].'' After the war, he studied English at the University of Southern California and NYU. In 1949, Heller received his M.A. from Columbia University. From 1949-1950, he was a Fulbright scholar at [[St Catherine's College, Oxford|St Catherine's College]] in [[Oxford University]]. He returned to St Catherine's as a visiting Fellow, for a term, in 1991 and was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the college.[http://www.stcatz.ox.ac.uk/the_college_pages/catz_people.htm] |
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===Catch 22 Controversy=== |
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In April [[1998]], Lewis Pollock wrote to ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]'' for clarification as to "the amazing similarity of characters, personality traits, eccentricities, physical descriptions, personnel injuries and incidents" in ''Catch-22'' and a novel published in England in 1951. The book that spawned the request was written by [[Louis Falstein]] and titled ''[[The Sky is a Lonely Place]]'' in Britain and ''[[Face of a Hero]]'' in the United States. Falstein's novel was available two years before Heller wrote the first chapter of ''Catch-22'' ([[1953]]) while he was a student at [[Oxford]]. ''The Times'' stated: "Both have central characters who are using their wits to escape the aerial carnage; both are haunted by an omnipresent injured airman, invisible inside a white body cast". Stating he had never read Falstein's novel, or heard of him,[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4196/is_19980428/ai_n10413175] Heller said: "My book came out in 1961[;] I find it funny that nobody else has noticed any similarities, including Falstein himself, who died just last year"(''[[The Washington Post]]'', [[April 27]], [[1998]]). |
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[[Image:Something_Happened.jpg|thumb|''Something Happened'' (1974), 1995 Vintage paperback edition ISBN 9-780-09988980-9]] |
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==Works== |
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===Short stories=== |
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* ''[[Catch As Catch Can: The Collected Stories and Other Writings]]'' ([[2003 in literature|2003]]) |
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* ''[[Three Short Stories Of Utter Annoyance]]'' |
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===Autobiographies=== |
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* ''[[No Laughing Matter (Book)|No Laughing Matter]]'' ([[1988 in literature|1988]]) |
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* ''[[Now and Then (Joseph Heller book)|Now And Then]]'' ([[1998 in literature|1998]]). |
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===Novels=== |
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* ''[[Catch 22]]'' ([[1961 in literature|1961]]) |
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* ''[[Something Happened]]'' ([[1974 in literature|1974]]) |
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* ''[[Good as Gold]]'' ([[1979 in literature|1979]]) |
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* ''[[God Knows]]'' ([[1984 in literature|1984]]) |
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* ''[[Picture This (novel)|Picture This]]'' ([[1988 in literature|1988]]) |
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* ''[[Closing Time (novel)|Closing Time]]'' ([[1994 in literature|1994]]) |
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* ''[[Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man]] ([[2000 in literature|2000]]) |
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===Plays=== |
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* ''[[We Bombed in New Haven]]'' ([[1967 in literature|1967]]) |
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* ''[[Catch 22 (play)|Catch 22]]'' ([[1971 in literature|1971]]) |
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* ''[[Clevinger's Trial]]'' ([[1973 in literature|1973]]) |
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== Quotations == |
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{{wikiquote}} |
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*"When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as ''Catch-22'' I'm tempted to reply, 'Who has?'" |
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*"How much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements?" |
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*"Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them." |
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*There's a big cocktail party on Martha's Vineyard. Someone comes up to Joseph Heller, and says, "Joe, see that guy over there? He's a hedge fund manager, and he made more money yesterday than you made on all the books you have ever published." Heller looks over, pauses and says, "Yeah, but I have something he'll never have: enough." |
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*"Ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, every president has been worse than his predecessor." |
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== Trivia == |
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* Joseph Heller was friends with fellow satiric author (and World War II veteran and coeval) [[Kurt Vonnegut]], who wrote a review on his ''Something Happened''. |
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* In ''[[Timequake]]'' [[Kurt Vonnegut]] cites Joseph Heller's ''[[Catch-22]]'' as a 'must read'. |
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In LOST Season 3 Episode 17 Desmond finds a copy of Catch 22 in Portuguese(ARDIL-22). |
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==External links== |
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*[http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/heller.html A Joseph Heller Archive at the University at South Carolina's Thomas Cooper Library] |
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*[http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/heller.htm A conversation with Joseph Heller] |
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* [http://wiredforbooks.org/josephheller/ 1984 and 1986 audio interview with Joseph Heller by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio] |
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*[http://www.psu.edu/ur/about/markers/postwar/postwar.html Joseph Heller's Penn State University historical marker] |
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*[http://www.theparisreview.com/viewinterview.php/prmMID/3894 ''The Paris Review'' interview] |
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*{{IBList |type=author|id=334|name=Joseph Heller}} |
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{{Heller}} |
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[[Category:American novelists|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:American satirists|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:American short story writers|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:American dramatists and playwrights|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Postmodernists|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Postmodern literature|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Pennsylvania State University faculty|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:United States Army officers|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:American military personnel of World War II|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Copywriters|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Columbia University alumni|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:People from Brooklyn|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:Jewish American writers|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:1923 births|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[Category:1999 deaths|Heller, Joseph]] |
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[[bn:জোসেফ্ হেলার্]] |
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[[bg:Джоузеф Хелър]] |
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[[he:ג'וזף הלר]] |
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[[ru:Хеллер, Джозеф]] |
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[[zh:约瑟夫·海勒]] |
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