Catch-22

New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961 First edition, first printing. Publisher's light blue cloth, lettered in white to spine, top edge stained red; in the original red, white, and blue dust jacket designed by Paul Bacon. Near fine, with light toning to board edges, and some foxing to cloth and endpapers; good or better unclipped dust jacket, with unfaded spine, light soiling to front panel and spine, some rubbing to rear panel, small closed tears to spine ends, some small closed tears and creasing to panel edges, small chip to bottom edge of front panel, and some chipping to corners. Overall, a bright and pleasing copy. Considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Catch-22 is a satirical text that tells the story of United States Air Force Captain John Yossarian during World War II. Heller coined the term "Catch-22," a paradoxical situation in which a given problem's solution is inherently denied by the nature of the problem. In this novel, the "catch-22" is Yossarian's enrollment in the Army; in order to be discharged, a soldier must be proven insane, but by completing the discharge application one essentially proves his or her own sanity. Orville Prescott writes in his 1961 review for the New York Times, "Catch-22 is realistic in its powerful accounts of bombing missions with men screaming and dying and planes crashing. But most of Mr. Heller's story rises above mere realism and soars into the stratosphere of satire, grotesque exaggeration, fantasy, farce and sheer lunacy." Paul Bacon is a prolific American illustrator and dust jacket designer, best known for his "Big Book Look." His dust jacket design for Catch-22 is exemplary of this style, with large prominent text accompanied by a small, conceptual design. Other notable dust jackets by him include Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), William Styron's Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), and Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962).. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Dust Jacket Included.