Famous New York Copywriters: Joseph Heller

Joseph Heller, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923, was raised in Coney Island. He's most famous for his dark novel, Catch 22 but, like many authors, some of his best work was as an advertising copywriter.

After graduating from high school in 1941, Heller worked in insurance before joining up for active service. Stationed in Corsica, he flew sixty combat missions and became a decorated pilot. After the war, Heller married and studied for an English degree from New York University. After completing an MA, he headed for England's Oxford University as a Fulbright Scholar.

Back in the US, he taught English at Pennsylvania State University. But it was his next career move that helped define his career. For nine years, from 1952 to 1961, Heller worked as an advertising copywriter at a sizeable New York advertising agency. Heller worked on magazines such as Time, Look and McCall's.

It was this time as a New York copywriter that really had the greatest influence on the work of Heller. The events in Something Happened, his 1974 novel, can be traced back to his time as a copywriter in New York. While working as a New York copywriter, he also penned short stories and TV and film screenplays. He also began work on his masterpiece, Catch 22.

In short, Heller's two greatest novels were a direct result of working as a New York copywriter. To date, no other writing by Heller has achieved the same critical success as Catch 22, a book widely seen as a modern classic, with its dark humour and curious slant on war.

After its huge success, Heller packed in his job as a New York copywriter and focused on writing. In 1981, he came down with a rare nervous-system disease, which he documented in a 1986 book, No Laughing Matter.

Heller's other novels all have a central theme: a lonely individual taking on the power of a large institution. Through these works, Heller established a reputation as a pessimist about people's inability to fight what he saw as corrupt societies.

Heller's play, We Bombed in New Haven, follows through on this theme. A group of actors is due to play an Air Force squadron, but they question their roles. In later years, Heller also adapted Catch 22 for theatre, but the book is widely seen as much better than the play.

Heller still lives in New York, where he continues to write. He will be remembered as possibly the most famous copywriter New York has ever produced.