CATCH - 22 [Signed]

Heller, Joseph

ISBN 10: 0671128051 / ISBN 13: 9780671128050

Published by Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1961

About this Item

Octavo, 443 pages. In Very Good condition with a Very Good condition dust jacket. White spine with a blue rectangle and white lettering. Dust jacket is wrapped in a mylar covering, price is uncut "$13.95", has mild shelving wear, mild wear along the edges, chipping along the fore corners, and bending wear along the front flap. Boards have mild wear along the fore corners, light bumping along the front head fore corner, moderate age-toning along the head and tail edges, and stains on the rear cover. Textblock has a stain through the dedication page to page 8, a stain on page 6, mild wear along the edges, and moderate age-toning along the edges. Inscription on the front end-page reading "To Douglas Payne, With regards from Grace Neil, who tells me you enjoy this book, and with very sincere good wishes from me" signed Joseph Heller, dated "May 1, 1986 East Hampton, N.Y.". DL consignment. Shelved Room C. Joseph Heller was born May 1, 1923 on Coney Island, Brooklyn, NYC to poor Jewish immigrants from Russia. Heller had an early love for writing, writing a story about the Soviet invasion of Finland, which was rejected by the "New York Daily News". Heller would join the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942, performing over 60 missions flying a B-25 bomber. After graduating with an M.A. in English, Heller would work several jobs, writing as he worked, eventually coming up with the lines that would birth "Catch-22" in 1953. "Catch-22" would be published in 1961, a satirical war novel based in part on Joseph Heller's personal experiences during World War II. After publication, "Catch-22" became big amongst younger circles who felt the novel encapsulated feelings about the Vietnam War. "Catch-22" remains a popular novel into the modern day, many noting it's seeming prescience about the chaos of the world to come. 1390120. Special Collections. Seller Inventory # 1390120

Bibliographic Details

Title: CATCH - 22 [Signed]

Publisher: Simon and Schuster, New York, NY

Publication Date: 1961

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition, 18th Printing.

About this title

Synopsis:

Dust Jacket Missing. Dark blue boards with slight rubbed area on corners and spine. No writing in book. Orange discoloration to top of page edges. 472 pages

Review:

There was a time when reading Joseph Heller's classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it's impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel's undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller's characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.

Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.