1923-1999
Joseph Heller died of a heart attack on December 12 in his home in New York.
Best known for his first novel Catch-22, which was turned into a memorable movie of the same title, Heller wrote several other books including a semi-sequel to Catch-22. He was born on May 1 1923 in Brooklyn and wanted to become a writer from an early age.
He drew on his own experiences serving during World War II in Italy as a bombadier to write the book.
After being discharged in 1945 he majored in English from NY University,
earned a masters in literature from Columbia and studied at Oxford in
1950. While writing stories and working on Catch-22 he worked in
the advertisement departments of various companies. He published
Catch-22 in 1961 but despite it's popularity and eventual
cult status he was not able to support himself solely from his writing and
he also taught, lectured and worked as a scriptwriter.
His novels were few and far between, totalling less than half a dozen
altogether. He also wrote two non-fiction books, one a autobiography and
the other about hsi struggle with the neurological disease Gulliain-Barre
syndrome which he developed in 1986.
He was 76 years old and is survived by his wife Valerie.
Bohemian Ink: Joseph Heller
Internet Resoures: Heller
The Joseph Heller Archive