Joseph Heller was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. He was born on May 1, 1923, in New York. From a young age, Heller had a passion for writing. At the age of eleven, he attempted to have his story about the Russian invasion of Finland published, but it was rejected by the New York Daily News. After his graduation from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1941, Heller spent time working in various jobs including as a blacksmith's apprentice, a messenger boy, and a filing clerk. In 1942, at the tender age of 19, he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps.

During World War II, he was stationed in Italy and flew 60 combat missions as a B-25 bombardier. Heller's experiences during the war influenced his writing and later he would describe the war as 'fun in the beginning... You got the feeling that there was something glorious about it.' His most famous work, the 1961 novel Catch-22, is a satire on war and bureaucracy, and its title has become synonymous with an absurd or contradictory choice. Heller was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972. He passed away on December 12, 1999 in East Hampton, New York.