A Trove of New Works by Thomas Pynchon?

[Dave Monroe]

>From Adrian Wisnicki, "A Trove of New Works by Thomas
Pynchon?  Bomarc Service News Rediscovered," Pynchon
Notes 46-49 (Spring-Fall 2000-2001), pp. 9-34 ...

   "Early in 1960, after having graduated from Cornell
and while writing V., Thomas Pynchon moved to Seattle
and began working for the Boeing Airplane Company. 
What Pynchon did while working at Boeing has puzzled
scholars almost from the moment of the very private
author's literary debut.  When we try to delve into
his stint at Boeing--first mentioned by Lewis nichols
and Dick Schaap--we reach dead ends or find
conflicting information.  Yet Pynchon's time at Boeing
is perhpas the most documneted period of his life, and
over the years a number of interested (though not
always accurate) bits of information have emerged.

[...]

   "In 'The Quest for Pynchon,' Matthew Winston
provides the first substantial, if brief, discussion
of Pynchon's work for Boeing.  Though Winston's essay
is not particularly well-documented, he does give
Pynchon's dates of employment as February 2, 1960, to
September 13, 1962. What did Pynchon do during this
time?  Winston gives only a vague account: Pynchon
worked 'not as editor of a house organ ... but as an
"engineering aide" who collaborated with others on
writing technical documents' (284-85).  In half a
sentence Winston first refutes a suggestion Nichols
had made, then drops a tantalizing hint, but provides
no evidence for his cliams and leaves many questions
unanswered.
   "... David Cowart develops the picture further. 
Cowrat locates one of Pynchon's colleagues at Boeing,
Walter Bailey, who worked '"a couple of desks over"'
from Pynchon 'in Boeing's giant Developmental Center.'
 According to Bailey, Pynchon 'wrote for an intramural
sheet called the "Minuteman Field Service News" (to be
distinguished from the company's official house organ,
The Boeing News).'  Specifically, the two men 'worked
in the Minuteman Logistics Support Program,' and
Pynchon had 'a "Secret" clearance.'  Pynchon, Bailey
recalls, was an introvert, had few freinds at Boeing,
and, while working, would occasionally 'shroud himself
in the enoromous stiff sheets of papaer used for
engineering drawings and work within this cocoon, like
an aerospace Bartleby, by whatever light filtered in'
(96)....  Pynchon, Bailey discovered, was 'very
literate' and also well-versed in 'technical matters'
(97).  Unfortunately, Bailey's reminiscneces end there
....
   "Clifford Mead's comprehensive Pynchon bibliography
does not include Minuteman Field Service News or any
Pynchon articles it might contain.  Mead does list one
article from Pynchon's time at Boeing, 'Togetherness,'
from the December 1960 issue of Aerospace Safety....
   "Donn Fry, a writer for the Seattle Times, picks up
the Boeing thread next.  In a short piece on Pynchon's
life ... Fry gives Pynchon's Seattle address (obtained
from the city directories of the early sixties) as
'4709 1/2 Ninth Ave. N.E., in the University District'
(L7), recaps the Cowart material, and adds the
reminiscences of Kenneth Calkins, a one-time writer
for Boeing Magazine.  Calkins, who describes Pynchon
as having long hair and a 'Wyatt Earp-style handlebar
mustache,' once complimented Pynchon 'on an article he
had written for another Boeing publication,' though
Fry does not specify which one: '"He did a story on
the soldering of electronic circuitry, which I have
absolutely no interest in....  But I thought, my gosh,
how can a guy make a story about this so
interesting?"' (L7).  Pynchon's technical writing,
apparently, was so good that Calkins recalls a
particular article thirty years later.
   "Finally, Richard Laneputs yet another spin on the
Boeing story, in 'Boeing, Boeing,' a section of his
now defunct website, The Pynchon Files.  Lane, too,
gives Pynchon's Seattle address, say that Pynchon
worked for Boeing Aerospace Operations, but claims
that Boeing denies Pynchonw as ever an employee. 
Lane, however, locates Pynchon'sname in the Boeing
Internal Directories for 1961 and 1962 ....  More
important, Lane asserts taht Pynchon's first job at
Boeing was with the Bomarc Service Information Unit,
which published Bomarc Service News....

[...]

"Further, Lane speculates that Pynchon's Aerospace
Safety article first appeared in Bomarc Service News;
he adds, as a final note, taht by February 1962,
pynchon was working for the Minuteman Field Support
Unit.  Unfortunately, though Lane seems to have had
contact with someone at Boeing ... he fails to cite
his sources (besides the internal directoris) ....
   "... a number of problems.  First, most of the
information is baed not on primary documents ... but
on oral recollections, fifteen to thirty years after
the event....  Second, the articles contain
conflicting reports of where Pynchon worked within
Boeing and what kind of work he did ....  Third, and
most important ... the fcat remains that, for two and
a half years of Pynchon's labor, we have one known
article.
   "So where are the rest?
   "Though the question seems easy to answer with some
simple library research, it requires extensive work in
the long run...." (pp. 9-12)   

References ...

Cowart, David.  Thomas Pynchon: The Art of Allusion.
   Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1980.

Fry, Donn.  "A Genius Among Us--For a While."
   Seattle Times/Seattle Intelligencer, 14 January
   1990: L7.

Lane, Richard.  "Boeing, Boeing."  The Pynchon Files.
 
http://web.archive.org/web/20010405172919/pynchonfiles.com/Boeing,Boeing.htm

Mead, Clifford.  Thomas Pynchon: A Bibliography of
   Primary and Secondary Materials.  Elmwood Park,
   IL: Dalkey Archive, 1989.

Nichols, Lewis.  "In and Out of Books."
   New York Times Book Review, 28 April 1963: 8.

Schaap, Dick.  "No Return Address on the V-Mail."
   Book Week, 10 May 1964: 6.

Winston, Matthew.  "The Quest for Pynchon."
   Twentieth Century Literature 21.3 (1975): 278-87.


		
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