Books

First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, signed and inscribed by Heller to family in blue ink on front free endpaper, one week after publication: "To Aunt Gert and Uncle Lew - With sincere affection, and with many fond memories of your warmth and generosity. Joe Heller / October 16, 1961 / New York." Publisher's light blue cloth, lettered in white to spine, top edge stained red; in a supplied original red, white, and blue dust jacket designed by Paul Bacon. Good book, with some spotting and soiling to cloth, light fading to spine, corners rubbed to boards, light staining to top edge of text block, light offsetting to endpapers, and front hinge starting but sturdy; good unclipped dust jacket, with light toning and soiling to spine, light toning to panel edges, some chipping to head of spine and top edge of rear panel (text unaffected), some small closed tears to panel edges, light rubbing to front panel, and lightly nicked corners. Housed in a custom gray folding box. Overall, a great association copy. Considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Catch-22 is a satirical text that tells the story of United States Air Force Captain John Yossarian during World War II. Heller coined the term "Catch-22," a paradoxical situation in which a given problem's solution is inherently denied by the nature of the problem. In this novel, the "catch-22" is Yossarian's enrollment in the Army; in order to be discharged, a soldier must be proven insane, but by completing the discharge application one essentially proves his or her own sanity. Orville Prescott writes in his 1961 review for the New York Times, "Catch-22 is realistic in its powerful accounts of bombing missions with men screaming and dying and planes crashing. But most of Mr. Heller's story rises above mere realism and soars into the stratosphere of satire, grotesque exaggeration, fantasy, farce and sheer lunacy." Paul Bacon is a prolific American illustrator and dust jacket designer, best known for his "Big Book Look." His dust jacket design for Catch-22 is exemplary of this style, with large prominent text accompanied by a small, conceptual design. Other notable dust jackets by him include Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962).

Catch-22 is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller, first published in 1961. The novel is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944, and follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and the other airmen in the camp, who attempt to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they can return home.