This small collection documents three of
Pynchon’s works: "Minstrel Island,"V., and Vineland. Also present is a
small volume of correspondence, currently restricted.
Call Number:
Manuscript Collection MS-03358
Language:
English
Access:
Open for research. Three folders of correspondence restricted during the lifetime
of Thomas
Pynchon.
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Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. was born May 8, 1937 in Glen
Cove, New York to Thomas Pynchon, an industrial surveyor, and
Katherine (Bennett) Pynchon. He grew up in the nearby town of Oyster
Bay, and received an engineering physics scholarship to Cornell
University in 1954. His studies were interrupted by two years of service in the
U.S. Navy from 1955 to 1957. When he returned to Cornell, he
pursued a liberal arts degree and graduated with a B.A. in 1959.
Pynchon began work on his first novel, V., in 1959 while
living in New York City. He moved to Seattle, Washington, in 1960 and worked
two years as a technical writer for Boeing Aircraft, then lived in
California and Mexico while finishing work on the book. Published in 1963 to
great critical acclaim, V. received the
William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel.
Pynchon’s literary reputation grew with his next two books, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) and Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), the latter a best-seller and
National Book Award winner considered by some critics to be the most important piece
of
fiction since James Joyce’s Ulysses. His later books Vineland (1990),
Mason & Dixon (1997), and Against the Day (2006) did not enjoy the critical
praise of his earlier works, but his status as one of the most important American
writers of
post-modern fiction remains unchanged.
Starting with the publication of his first novel, Pynchon has shunned publicity, refuses
to
be photographed, and closely guards his privacy. Little is know about his personal
life. In
addition to his novels, Pynchon has written essays, reviews, and short stories appearing
in
publications such as the New York Times Book Review,
New York Times Magazine, the New York Review of Books, the Kenyon Review, and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1984, he published a
collection of his short stories written in the late 1950s and early
1960s titled Slow Learner: Early Stories.
Source:
"Thomas Pynchon" Contemporary Authors Online
Scope and Contents
This small collection documents three of Pynchon’s works: "Minstrel Island,"V., and Vineland. The materials are arranged in alphabetical order by title
and date from 1959 to circa 1990.
"Minstrel Island" materials consist of one folder of handwritten and
typed notes, outlines, and draft fragments of an unpublished, unfinished musical written
by
Pynchon and his friend, John Kirkpatrick Sale. The materials date to
spring 1958 and were written while both Pynchon and Sale were attending
Cornell University.
Materials related to Pynchon’s first published book V. make up the bulk of the collection and consist of six folders of
typed mimeo copies of a late 1962 draft of the book, one galley proof, and
eight typed letters from Pynchon to John Kirkpatrick Sale and Sale’s
wife, Faith. The letters date from both before and after the book’s publication in
1963 and discuss the editorial process, evolution of the text, and the
critical response to the book. Also included is a paperback edition of V. containing annotations made by the seller’s staff indicating page
numbers corresponding to the typed draft mimeo copy.
Pynchon’s 1990 book Vineland is documented with a
photocopy of a complete, fair copy, typed draft of the book.
Forty-two letters written by Pynchon, dating from 1967 to 1982, are restricted during
Pynchon's lifetime.
Related Material
The following Ransom Center collections also contain Thomas Pynchon related materials and are described in archival inventories in the Ransom Center reading room or online at www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa:
