Inherent Vice

Mason & Dixon

Gravity's Rainbow

The Crying of Lot 49

Photo portrait of American author <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Thomas Pynchon</a>, age 18, as a U.S. Navy recruit in training. Pynchon served in the Navy between 1955 and 1957. The photo was taken in 1955 for a Navy "cruise book" (i.e., a yearbook) of recruits trained at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Training_Center,_Bainbridge" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Naval Training Center in Bainbridge</a>, Maryland. After boot camp, Pynchon received further training as an electrician in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1956 he was aboard the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hank" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">USS </a> in the Mediterranean during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Suez Crisis</a>.
















Thomas Pynchon

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