Q 01/05

Joseph Heller's best-known work, published in 1961, is which novel?

A) Slaughterhouse-Five

B) From Here to Eternity

C) The Naked and the Dead

D) Catch-22

Answer · why

D) Catch-22

It was his debut, and its title became a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice.

Q 02/05

In which Brooklyn neighbourhood was Heller born in 1923?

A) Brighton Beach

B) Williamsburg

C) Flatbush

D) Coney Island

Answer · why

D) Coney Island

His 1998 memoir is titled Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here.

Q 03/05

How many combat missions did Heller fly as a B-25 bombardier in World War II?

A) 30

B) 45

C) 50

D) 60

Answer · why

D) 60

He later insisted most were milk runs, though people thought his service remarkable.

Q 04/05

Heller joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 at what age?

A) 17

B) 18

C) 21

D) 19

Answer · why

D) 19

He had spent the year after high school as a blacksmith's apprentice, messenger boy and filing clerk.

Q 05/05

From which university did Heller receive his M.A. in English in 1949?

A) Princeton

B) Yale

C) Harvard

D) Columbia

Answer · why

D) Columbia

He had graduated from NYU on the G.I. Bill a year earlier after starting at the University of Southern California.