'Almost Like Christmas' Story from Catch-22's Joseph Heller is Published For First Time

Sometime between the late 1940s and early 1950s - before he wrote "Catch-22" - author Joseph Heller wrote a short story called "Almost Like Christmas." Check out the audio interview here.

The story of racism and violence in a small town has most likely never been published, but it will now see the light of day.

"Almost Like Christmas" is being published by The Strand Magazine. Strand's managing editor Andrew Gulli discovered the work at a library at Brandeis University.

The short story does not feature the humor that came to be Heller's hallmark.

"There's an attitude of despair in 'Almost Like Christmas,'" Gulli said. In Heller's later works, such as Catch-22, Gulli said that the despair is replaced by, "a sardonic laughter at the ridiculousness of the human condition."