As the junior member of this aeronautic crew, I, of course, am stuck with the jobs nobody wants. Which apparently includes introducing our author -- Thomas Pynchon.

Because HQ is too cheap (big surprise there) to spring for an actual photo, that line drawing to the right is all you get. And I should add it's probably 40 years out of date, because our man at the literary helm is a famous recluse. This guy makes Salinger look like an extrovert.

He's written a few other well known books like Gravity's Rainbow and V, but he's only deigned to include me in Against the Day (don't go looking for those Chums of Chance titles mentioned in the book -- that's just Tommy boy playing with his metafictional devices).

Now there's more I could tell you, but Wikipedia has already done the heavy lifting, so why recreate the wheel? If Noseworthy (one of my "commanding" officers) has a problem with that, he can write the next author intro himself.

To access the Wikipedia bio click on the drawing. Or if balloon reading makes you hurl, click on the audio files instead (warning: that bio only goes through 2006).