Lift a glass tomorrow...

[Burns, Erik]

Saturday Review: Viewponts: Deja vu  
Guardian Saturday Pages 
191 Words 
08 May 2004 
The Guardian 
8 
English 
© Copyright 2004. The Guardian. All rights reserved. 

May 8 

On this day in 1937, Thomas Ruggles Pynchon was born in Glen Cove, Long
Island, New York. His studies in engineering physics at Cornell were briefly
interrupted by a stint in the Navy, after which he transferred to Cornell's
College of Arts and Sciences. He gained his English degree in 1959, the year
his first short story, "The Small Rain", was published. More stories
followed, some collected in Slow Learner (1984). In Seattle (where he wrote
technical documents for Boeing), Pynchon started on his first novel, V
(1963). It was followed by The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) and his magnum opus
Gravity's Rainbow (1973), written in California. Welcomed by some critics as
a postmodern Ulysses , Gravity's Rainbow was chosen for the 1974 Pulitzer,
but there were objections that it was "unreadable" and "obscene", so no
prize was awarded. His other novels are Vineland (1990) and Mason & Dixon
(1997). His notorious elusiveness has only fuelled speculation as to his
identity and whereabouts, encouraged in part by the air of paranoia and
conspiracy that dominates his major work.