About
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist born on May 8, 1937, in Glen Cove, New York. After earning a B.A. from Cornell in 1959, he served in the U.S. Navy. His first novel, V. (1963), won the William Faulkner Foundation Award. He is best known for Gravity's Rainbow (1973), which won the National Book Award. His works are characterized by complex prose and themes such as paranoia and technology. Pynchon is notoriously private, rarely appearing in public and having others accept his awards.
* 1937-05-08
Major works
- V. (1963)novel
- The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)novel
- Gravity's Rainbow (1973)novel
- Vineland (1990)novel
- Mason & Dixon (1997)novel
Key milestones
- 1963Publication of his first novel V., which won the William Faulkner Foundation Award.
- 1974Gravity's Rainbow won the National Book Award, shared with Isaac Bashevis Singer.
- 1988Awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.
Themes
ParanoiaTechnologyHistorySciencePop culture
Sources: id.loc.gov · nationalbook.org · macfound.org