Signed Pynchon - last chance

[Paul Mackin]

Jackson's attendance at a church affiliated school might at least be evidence
that the Pyncher is not an old fashioned village-atheist-type antireligion
zealot (if any evidence were need) but another factor is that many of the older
more established (and incidently most prestigious, although I'm sure P is no
snob) private schools in the eastern U.S. happen to be church affiliated. The
two in Washington DC where the swells tend to go are respectively Quaker
(Sidwell) and Episcopalian (St. Albans).  Only a tiny minority of attendees at
these two places have any other association with these two religious
organizations.

By the way, isn't  $25,000 an unlikely amount to pay for the signature of a
living person? Of course 25 Gs aren't what they used to be.

                P.

Doug Millison wrote:

> I'd trust the provenance of the copy from the school before something on
> eBay, it's much easier to confirm from the school. That Pynchon's son
> attended this church-affiliated school is beyond question; Pynchon's name
> popped up in a school newsletter a couple of years ago; I had a copy of the
> newsletter issue that mentioned young Jackson's father as the author of the
> recently-published Mason & Dixon, which I passed along to a Pynchon scholar.
> (I got the newsletter from a person who was then researching NYC schools
> prior to enrolling his own children in one; he and his wife were considering
> the school that turned out to be Jackson's.)
>
> For those of you interested in Pynchon's biography and how it intersects
> with his fiction, I think it's interesting to note that he has had his son
> enrolled in a church-affiliated school.  In my personal experience such a
> decision often reflects a parent's values vis-a-vis the particular church
> that runs or has an affiliation with the school. In the case of a celebrity
> parent like Pynchon, who would presumably be able to get his child into any
> NYC private school, including those with no church affiliation, I assume
> that the church affiliation may have something to do with his choice of this
> particular school.  Other factors might come into play, of course.  But I
> can't imagine somebody with strong antipathies to organized religion sending
> a young child to a school with a significant religious affiliation.