Thomas Pynchon

American novelist (born 1937)

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. (/ˈpɪnɒn/,[1] commonly /-ən/;[2] born May 8, 1937) is an American author. He is part of the MacArthur Fellowship and writes very complex novels with deep meanings. He writes many different types of both fiction and non-fiction. For Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon won the 1973 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction[3]

Thomas Pynchon
Pynchon in 1953
Born
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr.

(1937-05-08) May 8, 1937 (age 87)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCornell University
OccupationNovelist
MovementPostmodernism
SpouseMelanie Jackson
ChildrenJackson Pynchon
Parent(s)Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Sr.
Katherine Frances Bennett
RelativesTristan Taormino

Pynchon is from Long Island, New York, and served two years in the United States Navy. He also got a degree in English from Cornell University. He published many short stories in the late-1950s and early-1960s. After this, he started writing novels. He is most famous for the novels V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), and Gravity's Rainbow (1973) from this time.[4]

References

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  1. "8/25/2013 New York Magazine profile based on interviews with lifelong friends and family members". Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  2. "Pynchon". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  3. "National Book Awards 1974". National Book Foundation. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
  4. Krafft, John M. (2012). "Biographical note". In Dalsgaard, Inger H.; Herman, Luc; McHale, Brian (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Pynchon. Cambridge University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-521-76974-7.