Who is Thomas Pynchon?

Thomas Pynchon has written only five novels since 1963, and yet every new work is received by fans and intellectuals with undisguised glee.

The reasons for this are not only because a Pynchon book is a true literary event, but also because the American writer is so darned mysterious.

He shuns publicity and does not allow his image to be used on his book jackets. No photos dating past the 1950s exist of the man. He has twice made cameo appearances on The Simpsons, but his animated character wore a bag on its head.

It was once thought that Thomas Pynchon was a pen name of that other reclusive author JD Salinger. Another theory was that Pynchon was the elusive Unabomber – the anti-technology mail-bomber who turned out to be mathematician Theodore Kaczynski.

The truth is that Thomas Pynchon is the real name of a New York-born post-modernist novelist and essayist. Many believe he once posed as one Wanda Tinasky, who in the 1980s wrote several letters to a Californian newspaper attacking a variety of noted literary figures, including The Colour Purple’s author, Alice Walker. Pynchon denied being Tinasky when CNN tracked him down a few years ago (much to his displeasure).

Pynchon was born in Long Island, New York, on 8 May 1937. After studying engineering physics and English and serving in the US Navy, he wrote his first novel, V, in 1963. This was followed by The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), his most famous and difficult book, Vineland (1990) and Mason and Dixon (1997).

If we are due another book from the author, rumours persist that it may be about a nineteenth-century Russian mathematician named Sofia Kovalevskaya.

He has also published a collection of short stories entitled Slow Learner (1984), and has written essays and blurbs for various magazines, records and books by other authors.

 

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