Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. (born 1937) is an American novelist celebrated for his dense, complex works of postmodern literary fiction, such as V. (1963), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), and the National Book Award-winning Gravity's Rainbow (1973). A reclusive author who avoids publicity, he attended Cornell University, served in the U.S. Navy, and worked as a technical writer at Boeing before publishing short stories and dedicating himself to novels that blend paranoia, humor, science, and history.