Did You Know . . . Catch-18?

Joseph Heller's famous novel, Catch-22, was first published in 1961. Set in World War II, the book is a comic satirical novel about bureaucracy. The phrase "Catch 22" in the novel is used to denote the vicious circle of military bureaucracy. The term "Catch 22" has made it into mainstream usage to mean any two choices that are mutually dependent (for example, which came first: the chicken or the egg?).

However, the term we now know as "Catch 22" was almost "Catch 18" for Heller had originally chosen Catch-18 as the title of the book. Unfortunately for Heller, Leon Uris published his Mila 18 novel just before Heller's book was to be published. Heller's publisher didn't think it would be good to have two books out at the same time with "18" in the title. Attempting to come up with another name, Heller and his publisher considered Catch-11, Catch-17, and Catch-14 before deciding on the title we all know, Catch-22.

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