November 10, 1961: "Catch-22" Is Published

November 10, 1961: Catch-22 is published, written by Joseph Heller. It became one of the major novels of World War II.

Heller was born on May 1, 1923, in Brooklyn. When World War II arrived, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, the forerunner of the U.S. Air Force. In 1944, he was sent to the Italian Front, where he flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier.

He later said it was "fun in the beginning... You got the feeling that there was something glorious about it." On his return home, he "felt like a hero... People think it quite remarkable that I was in combat in an airplane and I flew 60 missions, even though I tell them that the missions were largely milk runs." Originally, a "milk run" was a train that made frequent stops to pick up farmers' milk cans for shipment to local dairies for processing and bottling. In air warfare terms, it was a mission with little danger.

He worked for an advertising agency, alongside another future best-selling writer, Mary Higgins Clark. In 1955, he began to write a novel based around his war experiences, titling it Catch-18, and what would become the 1st chapter was published under that title in a magazine.

The finished novel describes the wartime experiences of Army Air Corps Captain John Yossarian. He devises multiple strategies to avoid combat missions, but the military bureaucracy is always able to find a way to make him stay. As Heller observed, "Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts, and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?"

Despite support from publishers Simon & Schuster, it took him until 1961 to finish it. And when he did, he had to change the title, because Leon Uris had just published a novel titled Mila 18. Heller considered Catch-11, but the release of the film Ocean's Eleven made that a bad idea. Catch-17 was rejected, for fear of confusion of another World War II story, Stalag 17. Catch-14 was considered, but turned down, because it didn't seem like a funny number.

Heller ultimately decided Catch-22 was a funnier-sounding title, anyway. What did it mean? Heller explained in the final form of the novel:

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to, but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

Without Catch-22, there would have been considerably more difficult for Dr. Richard Hornberger, who served at an Army hospital in the Korean War, to publish his 1968 novel M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. Both novels were filmed in 1970. A TV version of M*A*S*H began airing in 1972, and was one of the most successful series of all time. Catch-22 was less successful on TV, only airing a pilot starring Richard Dreyfuss in 1973. What Yossarian was to pilots, M*A*S*H's Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce was to doctors: Someone who used humor, light and dark alike, to get through the absurdity of war.

Heller continued to write novels and film screenplays, and teach writing at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, until his death on December 12, 1999, at the age of 76. His death led Kurt Vonnegut, who had also written about World War II and absurdity, to say, "Oh, God, how terrible. This is a calamity for American literature."

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November 10, 1961 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. And no games were scheduled in the NHL. No games were played in the NFL or the AFL. But there were 2 games played in college football. The University of Detroit beat Villanova, 20-6 at the University of Detroit Stadium. UD dropped its football program after the 1964 season, and became the University of Detroit Mercy in 1990. And the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 28-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

There were 2 games played in the NBA. The New York Knicks lost to the Detroit Pistons, 124-118 at the old Madison Square Garden. Richie Guerin scored 36 points in defeat.

And the Cincinnati Royals beat the Chicago Packers, 122-117 at the Cincinnati Gardens. Oscar Robertson scored 40 points. Yes, the Chicago Packers. It was their 1st season. Most Chicagoans didn't want to root for a team with the same name as the football team they hated so much. So, for 1962-63, they became the Chicago Zephyrs. It didn't help. So, for 1963-64, they became the Baltimore Bullets. They moved to Washington in 1973, and became the Washington Wizards in 1997.

And in English soccer, the North London team I would one day root for, Arsenal, played Manchester United to a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, in Salford, outside Manchester.