Vineland, publishing info, dedication

[Mark Kohut]

Misc.

Same publisher as "Slow Learner" from 1984. Not another published by them after "Vineland". 

Set in 1984.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vineland

Reviews mostly negative or lukewarm but the late John Leonard set it in the context of "The big book(s)" TRP is known to be working on. Salman Rushdie praised in the NYTimes Book Review, however. 




--- On Sun, 11/30/08, Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Subject: Vineland, publishing info, dedication
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Sunday, November 30, 2008, 1:42 PM
> I picked up my copy of Vineland back in 1990 at Black Oak
> Books
> in Berkeley so it's a first edition with the inherent
> vice of being
> owned by me, meaning dog-ears, burn marks, multi-colored
> post-it
> arrows and a broken spine. I'd give my copy a market
> value of:
> "Could you please leave this store NOW! And take that
> crumpled up
> bag with you?" Vineland was first published by Little,
> Brown & Company
> in 1990.
> 
> http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/publishing_little-brown-and-company.aspx
> 
> The dedication is:
> 
>            For my mother and father
> 
> TRP's subsequent novel, Mason & Dixon, was
> dedicated to his wife and son:
> 
>            For Melanie,
>         and for Jackson.
> 
> There's no dedication in V. or The Crying of Lot 49,
> Gravity's Rainbow is
> dedicated to Richard Farina and Against the Day is
> dedicated to the light
> in the darkness and Thelonious Sphere Monk.
> 
> The family [as reason for living, motivating factor for
> multiple plots &
> inherent vice] moves up in importance in Vineland and Mason
> & Dixon.
> AtD too, 'cept the author is up to his old tricks
> again, knowingly driving
> a whole book on "Illumination" & "Light
> Power", whatever the hell that means, eh?
> 
> Back to prima causa, Vineland is explicit in being
> dedicated to the Family.