Catch-18?

The Independent has a piece about novel titles and how they came about. The title of Joseph Heller’s first (and only good?) novel would have been very different if Heller hadn’t been young and unknown:

In 1953, Heller began writing a book called Catch-18, the first chapter of which was published in the magazine New World Writing in 1955 … Shortly before publication, however, the blockbuster novelist Leon Uris produced a novel entitled Mila 18 (also about the Second World War). It was thought advisable that Heller, the first-time novelist, should be the one to blink.

Heller said in an interview with Playboy in 1975: “I was heartbroken. I thought 18 was the only number.”

The rest of the story involves Robert Gottlieb, who also played a role in the evolution of Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son. That profile of Johnson (behind the link) was lucky, by the way: He doesn’t do publicity for books, as a rule, but while he wrote plays in San Francisco he deigned to chat with journalists to help Campo Santo, the theater troupe.

The piece about titles in the Indy, though — getting back to my point — also argues that Nabokov lifted the title as well as the idea for Lolita from a slender short story by a Berlin journalist called Heinz von Eschwege.

UPDATE: Expert advisors tell me that last tidbit about Nabokov is nonsense.

     posted 26 November 2007 by Michael Scott Moore

  1. Fascinating article, thanks for the tip. I just got Tree of Smoke, btw, and dying to dig in. I gotta say that’s so cool you interviewed him (Johnson). Dude is a such a joy to read.

    — Ben    Nov 27, 06:30 pm    #

  2. I learned about Tree of Smoke in a funny way. In the fall I noticed loads of hits from “Denis Johnson” Google searches. I knew there weren’t many profiles of him out there, so I thought, “Maybe he has a new book out.” And there it was. Kind of a haphazard way to get your publishing news; but it’s a good alternative to the NYT Book Review.

    — Mike    Nov 28, 12:46 am    #