Despite his relatively small output, Joseph Heller is considered a major contemporary author. His reputation rests principally on his first book, the experimental antiwar novel Catch-22, one of the most highly regarded American fictions since mid-century. Heller's work is assigned in college literature courses and has generated a substantial body of scholarly criticism. Catch-22 has been made into a film; Heller appears on television; his novels are offered as book club selections. He is a rarity among writers, having secured both academic acclaim and popular success.

Heller was born to Russian immigrant parents in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, at that time a heavily Jewish enclave. His father, a bakery-truck driver, died after a botched operation when the boy was only five years old. Heller, his older brother, and their mother were left to fend for themselves in the carnival-midway atmosphere of Coney Island. Several...