Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon

[Oli Kristjan Armannsson]

   Greetings all.

        Let me get right to the point. A co-worker of mine at the University
Bookstore in Reykjavik, Iceland, was going through some old copies of
Publisher's Weekly when he came across an article (in the October 28. 1996
ed.) on the arrival of a new novel by our man, Thomas Ruggles Pynchon.
        The article goes as follows:

        LONG WAIT OVER: NEW PYNCHON NOVEL FOR SPRING

        In last week's front-cover advertisement in PW, Holt formally
announced that in April it will publish Mason & Dixon, a long awaitied novel
by notoriously reclusive author Thomas Pynchon. Holt editor Ray Roberts, who
edited Pynchon's last novel, Vineland (Little Brown), in 1990, told PW that
he has just sent the 1000-page manuscript (it will probably be a
700-or-so-page book) into production.
        Mason & Dixon is a fictional account of the lives of British
surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, a story that Pynchon fanatics
have said has been in the works for years. Roberts, almost as reticent as
the author he edits, wouldn't comment on how long that book has been in
development, but noted that it "is a brilliant tale" set in
pre-Revolutionary War America "that will please Pynchon fans." Roberts also
told PW that The Letters of Wanda Tinasky, a paperback published in June
claiming to be letters Pynchon (under the Tinasky name) wrote to the
Booneville, Calif.-based Anderson Valley Advertiser while researching
Vineland during the 1980s, is not the work of Pynchon. The paperback, which
has a 2500-copy print run, is available from verse libre press in Oregon,
the hometown of Letters editor T. R. Factor, who told PW that "a lot of
Pynchon scholars do think the letters are his." She told PW that she has had
some multiple-copy orders from bookstores.
        The official Pynchon has a much more significant 200,000-first copy
print run, and Roberts told PW that figure is not unreasonable, given that
Vineland sold 100,000 copies.
        And what's next for Pynchon? Might there finally be a book tour or
even a mere author photo? Roberts could only laugh at such futile requests,
"I don't think he's going to start changing now." he told PW.  
                                                        - Judy Quinn


        Now these news were enough to get my blood flowing, how about you?

                                Regards,
                                        Oli Kr. Armannsson
                                        (olikr at vortex.is)

p.s. I checked Global Books in Print and there is an entry for an yet
un-named novel by Thomas Pynchon from Viking-Penguin Press.