Author Outlines for Famous Books

An online gallery by Flavorwire

Joseph Heller's intricate outline for Catch-22

From Flavorwire: ‘Writing a novel (or a story, for that matter) is confusing work. There are just so many characters running all over the place, dropping hints and having revelations. So it’s no surprise that many authors plan out their works beforehand, in chart or list or scribble form, in order to keep everything straight. After the jump, you’ll find a mini collection of those planning papers, so you can take a peek into the process of some of your favorite authors, from James Salter to J.K. Rowling’ [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Daily Routines of Writers and Philosophers
• Writers' Rooms: Siri Hustvedt
• Writers' Rooms: Virginia Woolf
• J.G. Ballard Manuscripts at British Library
• Watt: Samuel Beckett's Wartime Manuscripts

Erica Heller on Catch-22

On reading Joseph Heller's American masterpiece for the first time

Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22

Erica Heller, daughter of Joseph Heller, tells The Telegraph about her experience of reading Catch-22 for the first time: 'Erica Heller was nine when her father’s great novel, Catch-22, was published. On its 50th anniversary she describes how it changed her life – and why she is reading it for the first time.' [Read More]

Find on Amazon: US | UK

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Erica Heller, Yossarian Slept Here

20 Most Iconic Book Cover Designs?

Online gallery includes classic novels by Salinger, Heller, Lee and Ellison

Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange. Design: David Pelham

Flavorwire lists its top 20 book cover designs (link via Susan Tomaselli) [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• The Book Cover Club
• Book Cover Archive
• The Great Gatsby: Re-Covered
• Peter Mendelsund's Book Designs
• Peter Mendelsund on Franz Kafka
• Will Self Paperbacks get a new look

Erica Heller, Yossarian Slept Here

Daughter publishes memoir on life with Joseph Heller

Erica Heller, Yossarian Slept Here

Barnes and Noble Review offers a brief summary of Yossarin Slept Here, Erica Heller's memoir of life with the author of Catch 22: 'Joseph Heller's daughter, Erica Heller, offers memories both sweet and tart of her upbringing by her famous father, her parents' tumultuous marriage, and a host of similar domestic vistas.' [Read More]

Also at A Piece of Monologue:

• Essential Jewish Literature
• J. G. Ballard's Top Ten Writers

J. G. Ballard's Top Ten Writers

British author lists his favourite authors, poets and dramatists

In a BBC survey at the turn of this century, J. G. Ballard listed his top ten writers of the last millenium. It's interesting to note how many of the selected are associated with twentieth-century satire and dystopian writing - authors who held a powerful influence over Ballard's own work:

1. William Shakespeare
The universal writer and poet.

2. Miguel Cervantes
Don Quixote is the first great anti-hero.

3. Jonathan Swift
The most intelligent writer who ever lived.

4. Herman Melville
Moby Dick is the greatest ocean of a novel the human imagination has ever sailed.

5. John Keats
The sweetest literary poet of all.

6. Franz Kafka
The greatest prophet of the terrifying bureaucracies of the 20th century.

7. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
He is the great psychologist of the modern novel.

8. Joseph Heller
Catch 22 is the last classic novel written this century.

9. George Orwell
1984 is the prophetic novel of our time.

10. Aldous Huxley
Brave New World is a guide book to the next millennium.

'Who was the greatest writer of the last 1000 years?'

BBC | Your Millenium

More on J. G. Ballard at A Piece of Monologue:

• Artforum on J. G. Ballard
• J. G. Ballard, 'Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton'
• J. G. Ballard 1930-2009