Years before the publication of "Catch-22" ("A monumental artifact of contemporary literature" -- "The New York Times;" "An apocalyptic masterpiece" -- "Chicago Sun-Times;" "One of the most bitterly funny works in the language" -- "The New Republic"), Joseph Heller began sharpening his skills as a writer, searching for the voice that would best express his own peculiarly wry view of the world.
In "Catch As Catch Can, " editors Matthew J. Bruccoli and Park Bucker have for the first time collected the short stories Heller published prior to that first novel, along with all the other short pieces of fiction and nonfiction that were published during his lifetime. Also included are five previously unpublished short stories, most reflecting the influence on Heller of urban naturalist writers such as Irwin Shaw and Nelson Algren.
The result is an important and significant addition to our understanding and appreciation of Joseph Heller, showing his evolution as a writer and artist. For those unfamiliar with his work, it will serve as an excellent introduction; for everyone else, "Catch As Catch Can" is a chance to explore a new aspect of Heller's remarkable career.

The Romance of Regionalism in the Work of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald: The South Side of Paradise explores resonances of "Southernness" in works by American culture's leading literary couple. At the height of their fame, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald dramatized their relationship as a romance of regionalism, as the charming tale of a Northern man wooing a Southern belle. Their writing exposes deeper sectional conflicts, however: from the seemingly unexorcisable fixation with the Civil War and the historical revisionism of the Lost Cause to popular culture's depiction of the South as an artistically deprived, economically broken backwater, the couple challenged early twentieth-century stereotypes of life below the Mason-Dixon line. From their most famous efforts (The Great Gatsby and Save Me the Waltz) to their more overlooked and obscure (Scott's 1932 story "Family in the Wind," Zelda's "The Iceberg," published in 1918 before she even met her husband), Scott and Zelda returned obsessively to the challenges of defining Southern identity in a country in which "going south" meant decay and dissolution. Contributors to this volume tackle a range of Southern topics, including belle culture, the picturesque and the Gothic, Confederate commemoration and race relations, and regional reconciliation. As the collection demonstrates, the Fitzgeralds' fortuitous meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1918 sparked a Southern renascence in miniature.

This book provides a descriptive inventory of the major components in the Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. The collection documents the literary career and thought of one of America's greatest novelists. The catalogue includes a listing of editions of all English-language printings of books by Fitzgerald including proof and review copies and the collection's many books inscribed by the author. Fitzgerald manuscripts, revised typescripts, correspondence, and business documents are also cited, as well as Fitzgerald screenplays and Princetoniana. There is a separate section on Zelda Fitzgerald. Highlights of the collection include the only set of unrevised galleys for The Great Gatsby, titled Trimalchio; one of the two existing acting scripts for Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!; Fitzgerald's annotated copy of James Joyce's Ulysses; a copy of Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls inscribed to Fitzgerald; and Fitzgerald memorabilia such as his engraved whiskey flask, a briefcase, and other family materials. Each item is described in detail - including title, publication information, and call number, where relevant, and explanatory notes. Many items in the collection, including all Fitzgerald inscriptions, are illustrated. The Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald at the University of South Carolina provides a valuable resource not only for Fitzgerald scholars, but also for those interested in Fitzgerald's friends and literary associates (including Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ring Lardner, John Dos Passos, and Maxwell Perkins) and in American culture between the world wars.