Heller, Joseph

[Story Graph for Composition for Catch-22]. Large photographic print (16 x 19 3/4 ins; 410 x 500 mm) reproducing Heller's wall chart of episodes, characters, pivotal scenes ("Yossarian Wounded" and "Yossarian tries to be grounded" for instance) and timelines within the complex narrative during his writing of the novel. Inscribed by Heller, "To Harold Eiber | with sincere good wishes | Joseph Heller."



 

The birth of Yossarian. Evident even on this reproduction are the numerous erasures and edits that Heller made while planning and revising the flashbacks, various narrative voices with the chronology of the novel within the larger chronology of World War II.

Heller first wrote the manuscript in longhand on a legal pad, then proceeded to cut and paste with scissors and tape as well as rewriting portions of that draft.  He used not only a large wall chart but also a series of index cards to keep track of his changes and his divergence from a direct narrative arc. With the original of this chart in the collections at Brandeis, the present is a unique reminder of the work the author undertook before and during the composition of one of the great American novels, the title of which is now a catchphrase for an impossible, contradictory predicament.