MMV - Notes on names

Mon Mar 24 01:45:29 CST 2003

And don't ignore the "Irving" here.  Schoenmaker's
nurse in V., e.g., "called, by some associative freak,
Irving" (p. 45). And note as well ...

... revelations contained in a series of letters, more
than 120 in all, that the famously reclusive author
wrote to his former agent, Candida Donadio, between
1963 and 1982. The content of those letters became
public last week, almost certainly against Pynchon's
will, when the New York Times published a wide
selection of excerpts from them....

The letters ... display flashes of Pynchon's baroque
wit. When Who's Who asked him to supply a biographical
note, the Times writes, Pynchon debated replying that
his parents were named Irving Pynchon and Guadalupe
Ibarguengotia and that he was 'named Exotic Dancers
Man of the Year in 1957' and 'regional coordinator for
the March of Edsel Owners on Washington (MEOW) in
1961.

http://www.salon.com/media/1998/03/10media.html

In more recent times there was a rather prominent
stock brokerage called Pynchon & Co. This house was
frequently mentioned by the New York Times during the
‘20s and ‘30s. The Times frequently published
abstracts of prestigious Pynchon & Co. publications
just as they publish abstracts of the studies of
Merrill Lynch today. The titles ranged through such
topics as might be of interest to investors: The
Aviation Industry (1928, 1929), Survey of Public
Utilities (1928), The Gas Industry (1928), and the
ambitious Electric Light and Power: A Survey of World
Development (1930). The firm was obviously well
connected and enjoyed great favor. They had offices in
New York (3), Chicago (2), Milwaukee, Battle Creek,
London (2), Liverpool, and Paris. They were one of the
largest brokerages in the country, if not the world.
When Pynchon & Co. talked, people listened; they were,
in a word, influential. 

In April 1929, Pynchon & Co. announced they would be
opening a new Chicago office. By December 1929, after
October 24 or the Black Thursday of the stock market
crash, the firm had had noticeable reversals. The
Times reported that Mrs. Harold Pynchon had to get an
injunction to prevent Pynchon & Co. from selling her
personal stock to pay the debt of her husband, a high
ranking executive in the firm. The senior partner,
George M. Pynchon, tried desperately to come up with
some technological breakthrough to stem the tide. In
1930 he backed experiments with a “Diesel electric”
boat, and a “glider boat.” Neither paid off. By April
1931 the firm was suspended from the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) and went into receivership. The Irving
Trust Co. took charge as receiver. According to the
respected financial historian, Ferdinand Lundberg, the
Irving Trust Co. was a bank in the Morgan-DuPont
sphere at the time. 

According to the Times, Pynchon & Co. was the largest
brokerage ever to have been suspended from the NYSE.
The day after the Exchange announced the suspension of
Pynchon & Co., the Times noted a drop in the value of
US Steel and Johns Manville stock, two firms closely
associated with J.P. Morgan. 

The financial writer analyzed the failure as due to
Pynchon & Co.’s involvement, together with the Chase
Securities Corporation, in Fox Film and General
Theaters. The final blow came as the value of Fox Film
and General Theaters stock fell under attack and was
driven down by large scale selling, or dumping. The
Times printed a statement by an official spokesman of
the Chase National Bank saying the Chase “was merely
in the position of being one of the numerous creditors
of the firm [Pynchon & Co.], but had no special
interest in its affairs,” sounding oh so much like the
pro forma denial of divorcees when queried about the
setbacks of their ex-spouses. “I’m not bitter. I wish
him/her all the best. Actually, I have no special
interest in his/her affairs.” 

The Times reported that as of March 1932 Pynchon & Co.
had liabilities of $19.7 million, and assets of but
$12.8 million, not inconsequential sums when one
considers that a new Chevrolet cost about $600 in
1932. Still, Pynchon & Co. went under and there was
much subsequent scandal. One Mrs. Helen Delany Pynchon
made the news in 1931. It was reported that she was
saved from a jail term by the beneficence of her
former employer, mining engineer Raymond Brooks, when
she was convicted of robbing him of $45,000.
Subsequently the George M. Pynchon estate was sold
and, no end to ignominy, the estate’s furniture sold
at public auction. Some reversal–from contemplating
the world’s electric power needs, to having the
furniture sold at auction. 

We can only infer from the reaction of the stock
market to the failure of Pynchon & Co., the use of the
Irving Trust Co. as receiver, that the firm was a
Morgan satrap. The Pynchons appear to have used to
advantage all of their family associations with the
J.P. Morgan group, with whom they had shared common
interests since the founding of the colonies in 1630.
Yet as the J. P. Morgan influence ebbed, the Morgan
associates suffered as well. Once again the Pynchon
clan had thrown its lot in with the loyalists and
lost.

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/inferno.htm

http://www.vheissu.be/art/art_eng_SL_hollander.htm#chap_8

Hollander of course has much to say on nomenclature
here, elsewhere in Pynchon.  And then there's simply
the generally comedic nature of the name, e.g., ...

http://www.gilligansisle.com/mosq.html

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0103&msg=53620&sort=date

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