Among the early favorable reviews was that in The Nation, Vol. 193 (November 4, 1961). Nelson Algren found the hilarity "so wild that it hurts" and believed that the novel was not only antiwar but a repudiation of all the horror, greed, complacency, ignorance, and "endless cunning" in our civilization. The New Republic, Vol. 145 (November 13, 1961), called it "one of the most bitterly funny works in the language."
Respected literary figures such as S. J. Perelman and Studs Terkel publicly praised the book. John Chancellor, host of NBC's Today show in the summer of 1962, had stickers privately printed, reading "YOSSARIAN LIVES," and posted them around Manhattan. Paul Newman, Jack Lemmon, and Anthony Quinn were among the leading actors who saw possibilities in a film version and expressed interest in playing Yossarian. (The part went to Alan Arkin in the 1970 film written by Buck Henry and directed by Mike Nichols.) Although the hardback won no prizes and was not a best seller in the United States, it did well from the beginning in England. The novel initially was a cult favorite in America, but the paperback edition (published in September 1962) set sales records. In the decades since, Catch-22 has established itself as a classic satire and antiwar novel.
