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Thomas Pynchon

Also known as Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr., Thomas Ruggles Pynchon

American novelist (born 1937)

AI overview

Thomas Pynchon is an American novelist born in 1937 who is known for his reclusive personal life and complex literary works. His novels are significant contributions to American literature, exploring themes across science, history, and human experience in densely layered narratives.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 8 May 1937
Works: 32

Top works

Deadly Sins
Otto peccati capitali
Bleeding Edge
The Crying of Lot 49
V.

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1937-05-08

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 933
Total plays: 15,833

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Analysis of Relative Gene Expression Data Using Real-Time Quantitative PCR and the 2−ΔΔCT Method
· 2001 · cited 160,894x
The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews
· 2021 · cited 77,697x
U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation
· 2015 · cited 57,627x
STAR: ultrafast universal RNA-seq aligner
· 2012 · cited 49,752x
UCSF Chimera—A visualization system for exploratory research and analysis
· 2004 · cited 43,784x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“Why should things be easy to understand?”
“Let me be unambiguous. I prefer not to be photographed.”
“My belief is that "recluse" is a code word generated by journalists... meaning, "doesn't like to talk to reporters."”
“I did not write those letters. This has been a hoax that I've had nothing to do with. I'm sorry it's gone on as long as it has.”
“Here's your quote: "Thomas Pynchon loved this book, almost as much as he loves cameras!" Hey, over here! Have your picture taken with a reclusive author! Today only, we'll throw in a free autograph! But wait, there's more!”
“Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede jacket, sneaker and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk, Virginia.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Image: Thomas Pynchon, high school yearbook editor, 1953.jpg

Show 4 more facts

date of birth: 1937-05-08
Commons category: Thomas Pynchon
Commons Creator page: Thomas Pynchon
start of work period: 1959-00-00

Sources (9)

via Wikidata · CC0

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Thomas Pynchon, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

Untitled

~40 min read

Article

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. (/ˈpɪntʃɒn/ PIN-chon, commonly /ˈpɪntʃən/ PIN-chən; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist. He is known for his dense, complex works of postmodern fiction, which are distinguished by their paranoid tone, absurd humor, and references to history, art, science, and popular culture. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American novelists. Pynchon is notoriously reclusive. Few photographs of him have been published, and rumors about his location and identity have circulated since the 1960s.

Pynchon served 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: V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), and Gravity's Rainbow (1973). For the latter, Pynchon won the 1974 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Pynchon followed with the novels Vineland (1990), Mason & Dixon (1997), Against the Day (2006), Inherent Vice (2009), which was adapted for film in 2014, and Bleeding Edge (2013). Pynchon's latest novel, Shadow Ticket, was published in 2025.