signed-firsts

Now and Then (1998) Signed First Edition Reference

Approx. 3 min read · 4 May 2026

Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here is Joseph Heller’s autobiography, published by Knopf in 1998, one year before his death. It covers his childhood in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn during the Depression, his wartime service as a B-25 bombardier in the Mediterranean theater, his postwar education on the GI Bill at NYU and Columbia, and the long gestation and unexpected success of Catch-22. The book is notable for its relaxed, conversational tone — Heller at seventy-five, looking back without rancor or self-aggrandizement on a life that turned out better than a Coney Island kid had any reason to expect.

The Book

The memoir’s strongest sections cover Heller’s Coney Island childhood — the crowded apartment buildings, the boardwalk, the street life of a Jewish neighborhood in the 1930s. These passages have a warmth and specificity that recall the autobiographical sections of Closing Time, but freed from the demands of fictional plotting, they are more effective here. Heller’s account of his wartime experience is characteristically understated — he flew sixty combat missions but presents the experience without the drama that Catch-22 drew from the same material.

The sections on the writing and publication of Catch-22 are essential reading for Heller scholars and collectors. He describes the book’s slow composition over eight years while working as a promotion copywriter at magazines, the initial mixed reviews, and the gradual word-of-mouth success that turned it into a cultural phenomenon. These passages provide the biographical context that deepens understanding of the novel and, by extension, of what a signed first edition of Catch-22 represents.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York Publication date: 1998 Copyright page: “First Edition” stated with number line starting at “1”

Signed Copy Market Values

Signed first edition, fine/fine: $75–$200
Inscribed copies: $100–$300

As Heller’s penultimate book (the posthumous Portrait of an Artist, As an Old Man followed), Now and Then is notable as one of the last titles Heller signed. He died in December 1999, making the signing window extremely narrow. Despite this, signed copies are available — Heller did promotional appearances for the book, and his lifelong willingness to sign copies means that a reasonable number of signed firsts entered the market.

Collecting Significance

For Heller collectors, Now and Then serves a dual purpose: it is a collectible signed first by a major American novelist, and it is a primary biographical source that enriches the collector’s understanding of the author and his most valuable book. The memoir’s publication so close to Heller’s death gives it an additional poignancy — this is Heller summing up, and knowing that it would be among his final public statements adds weight to every assessment and memory.

The book’s relatively modest price makes it an attractive addition to any Heller collection, and its biographical content makes it useful reference material for collectors evaluating inscriptions, provenance claims, and other aspects of the Heller market.