'Catch-22' author's desk at USC Libraries (USA)

University of South Carolina Libraries is now home to a desk and desk lamp owned by American author Joseph Heller. The items are on display, along with the typewriter Heller used to write his iconic novel Catch-22, in the Hollings Library through December 20. Donated by his widow Valerie Heller, the desk and lamp arrived in the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in April. Along with the typewriter, which was acquired by USC in the late 1990s, the desk and lamp re-create the writing environment that yielded some of the best in 20th-century American writing. "This old desk of Joe's shows much wear and tear," Valerie Heller said. "When I came to East Hampton in the spring of 1982, the desk was in the main house and during the summer was moved over to a writing studio on the property. Joe would "escape' the house to the studio to write in longhand on a lined, yellow pad and then transcribe to the typewriter."