Thomas Pynchon

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born

May 08, 1937 in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York, The United States

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American writer based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of fiction. Hailing from Long Island, Pynchon spent two years in the United States Navy and earned an English degree from Cornell University. After publishing several short stories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he began composing the novels for which he is best known today: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Gravity's Rainbow (1973), Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), and Against the Day (2006).

Pynchon is regarded by many readers and critics as one of the finest contemporary authors. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in L...more

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Books by Thomas Pynchon

Average rating: 3.82 · 51,708 ratings · 5,087 reviews · 19 distinct works

	The Crying of Lot 49 3.70 avg rating — 19,462 ratings — published 1965 — 47 editions	My rating:
	Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon, Frank Miller (Illustrations) 4.03 avg rating — 9,934 ratings — published 1973 — 32 editions	My rating:
	V. 3.95 avg rating — 5,873 ratings — published 1963 — 34 editions	My rating:
	Inherent Vice 3.60 avg rating — 3,319 ratings — published 2009 — 19 editions	My rating:
	Vineland 3.62 avg rating — 3,391 ratings — published 1990 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Mason and Dixon 3.94 avg rating — 2,606 ratings — published 1997 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Against the Day 4.04 avg rating — 2,163 ratings — published 2006 — 17 editions	My rating:
	Slow Learner 3.44 avg rating — 1,470 ratings — published 1984 — 14 editions	My rating:
	The Secret Integration 4.10 avg rating — 49 ratings — published 1964	My rating:
	V/Crying of Lot 49/Gravity's Rainbow 4.31 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 1993	My rating:

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Quotes by Thomas Pynchon

“Life's single lesson: that there is more accident to it than a man can ever admit to in a lifetime and stay sane.”
― Thomas Pynchon, V.

832 people liked it

“They're in love. Fuck the war.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow: Great Books Edition

tags: love , war

410 people liked it

“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.”
― Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

tags: answers , questions

178 people liked it

See all Thomas Pynchon's quotes »

Polls

What should we read for our fourth quarter (October through December) 2011 group read?

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

7 votes 43.8%

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

4 votes 25.0%

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

3 votes 18.8%

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster

2 votes 12.5%

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

0 votes 0.0%

16 total votes

2 comments

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