Callipygian

[Dave Monroe]

To the Editor:

In a recent letter to the editor, Romain Gary asserts
that I took the name "Genghis Cohen" from a novel of
his to use in a novel of mine, The Crying of Lot 49.
Mr. Gary is totally in error. I took the name Genghis
Cohen from the name of Genghis Khan (1162-1227), the
well-known Mongol warrior and statesman. If Mr. Gary
really believes himself to be the only writer at
present able to arrive at a play on words this
trivial, that is another problem entirely, perhaps
more psychiatric than literary, and I certainly hope
he works it out.

Thomas Pynchon,

New York City.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000824131346/pynchonfiles.com/cohn.htm

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cohen.html

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/cl49/GengCo.html

--- Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:

> I forget. Was the Pynchon the first to say "Ghengis
> Cohen?" There was  some kind of controversy way
> back some time.

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