bibliography
NNDB
This is a beta version of NNDB
Search: for

Thomas Pynchon

Thomas PynchonAKA Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr.

Born: 8-May-1937
Birthplace: Glen Cove, Long Island, NY

Gender: Male
Religion: Agnostic [1]
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Novelist

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Gravity's Rainbow

Military service: US Navy (1955-57)


[1] Raised a Roman Catholic. Jules Siegel, recounting Pynchon's 1950s days at Cornell: "Tom Pynchon was quiet and neat and did his homework faithfully. He went to Mass and confessed, though to what would be a mystery. He got $25 a week spending money and managed it perfectly, did not cut class and always got grades in the high 90s."

Father: Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Sr. (industrial surveyor, b. 9-Mar-1907, d. 1995)
Mother: Katherine Frances Bennett (b. 1909, d. 1996)
Sister: Judith (younger)
Brother: John (younger)
Slept with: Christine Wexler (wife of Playboy columnist Jules Siegel, 1960s)
Wife: Melanie Jackson (literary agent, m. 1990)
Son: Jackson (musician, b. 18-May-1991)

    High School: Oyster Bay High School, Oyster Bay, NY (1953)
    University: BA English, Cornell University (1954-55, 1957-59)

    Boeing Engineering Aide (2-Feb-1960 to 13-Sep-1962)
    Richard and Hilda Rosenthal Award 1966 for The Crying of Lot 49
    National Book Award for Fiction 1974 for Gravity's Rainbow
    William Dean Howells Medal 1975 for Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon declined the award)
    MacArthur Fellowship 1987

Author of books:
V. (1963, novel)
The Crying of Lot 49 (1966, novel)
Gravity's Rainbow (1973, novel)
Slow Learner (1984, short stories)
Vineland (1990, novel)
Mason & Dixon (1997, novel)
Against the Day (2006, novel)
Inherent Vice (2009, novel)



Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile



Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications