Thomas Pynchon, an omnipresent force in American literature, made what was likely the biggest swing into the public arena of his life when he appeared in season 15 of The Simpsons in an episode entitled “Diatribe of a Mad Housewife.” In the episode, Marge Simpson begins her pursuit into the printed world by crafting a romance novel, writing her husband, Homer, as a lazy whaling captain named Mordecai, unable to capture even the smallest catch. The next door neighbor, Ned Flanders, is Cyrus Manly, the sworn enemy of Captain Mordecai and writes herself as Lady Temperance, Cyrus Manly’s lover and confidant. Marge publishes the book to Homer’s dismay and to almost immediate world wide acclaim. Included in that acclaim are the voices of authors such as Edme Delafield, the Olsen Twins, Thomas Clancy, and finally Thomas Pynchon. Pynchon, famously private to the point of extreme paranoia, jokingly wears a bag over his head in the episode.

Even in cartoon form, Pynchon held on to his faceless status in 2004, the Simpsons episode release date, carrying on a trend he began with his first book Gravity’s Rainbow (1973). 19 years later, Pynchon, now 85, seems poised to hold up the tradition even as he sells his archive to the Huntington Library of San Marino California. The archive will feature decades worth of research, personal artifacts, and finally early drafts of his novels, but the collection will not offer Pynchon fans any photos or videos of the man himself. 

Fortunately, for the curious reader, fan sightings of the cryptic author describe him as predictably eccentric, lanky, and formal. For those who are especially rabid fans, there are plenty of rumors that he frequents Pynchon look-alike meetups, that he lives in Mexico, or even that he was the unabomber. But for readers who are not as obsessed, there will be plenty to relish in at the beautiful half-library half-botanical-garden of San Marino, California.

In a statement from Huntington Library, Karen Lawerence, the president of the library, made clear the importance of the collection: “This is a landmark collection for us, because he is a writer of great stature and literary importance. The archive will generate enormous interest in the scholarly community, and we’re thrilled that this living writer has selected Huntington.” The Huntington holds more than “48 boxes” containing Pynchon’s imposing collection of works from the 1950s into the 2020s. Those boxes hold the keys to a large majority of his work, detailing handwritten notes, research, maps the author himself created, and any other related memorabilia from his decades working as an author in both New York and California, crafting intricate and interweaving tales.

The Huntington is known for its massive collection of American literary works, including the collected works of William Shakespeare and early writings by Henry David Thoreau. In addition to its large commitment to collecting and distributing American literary history, The Huntington has also amassed a large assembly of early atlases and maps, early medieval manuscripts, and memorabilia from early America including early doodles by a J. Goldsboriough, an amateur artist that worked to capture individuals and scenes through Western Expansion and the respective Gold Rush.  “And when we learned of the scale and rigor of their independent scholarly programs, which provide exceptional resources for academic research in the humanities, we were confident that the Pynchon archive had found its home,” Jackson Pynchon, his son, added.

Some of the evident enthusiasm comes from the value that San Marino holds to Pynchon and similar authors of his era. Novels like Inherent Vice, The Crying of Lot 49, and Vineland are all set within the confines of late 20th century California: a setting he frequently uses in his novels as place that is corrupted by American greed, a sense of dread, and populated by well-meaning but inevitably incompetent figureheads. Inherent Vice, written in 2009, hones in on those same ideas by pitting private investigator “Doc” against the Los Angeles of the 70s led by Richard Nixon, infused capital, and a heavy-handed police force. The novel is famously complicated, leaving the reader little breathing room as she attempts to unravel the tunneling entanglement Doc finds himself in. What the novel loses in discernible plot, it makes up for in endearingly inept personality.

Larry Doc Sportello is a continually confused hippie who naturally owns a private investigative firm that he runs out of his apartment on Gordita Beach. The novel begins unceremoniously when his ex-girlfriend, Shasta, who is now dating incautious real estate mogul Nicky Wolfman, comes to said apartment and asks Doc to help uncover a plot stemming from Wolfman’s wife to put Wolfman in an asylum and take the little money he has left. The plot very quickly drifts and balloons from its inciting scene, but the linear tale clearly does not interest Pynchon so much as capturing a moment of rapid and extreme change in the American landscape. His style lays bare a California that America has finally caught up with, as it loses the unique brand of 60s hippiedom that had been ascribed to the Western hemisphere for decades on end. 

For readers unable to access the quintessentially Californian tales that make up so much of Pynchon’s collection, the Huntington Library promises to go beyond its state borders to include moments from New York stories like Bleeding Edge and works that lean towards the historical like Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. Pynchon, having grown up in Long Island, is well-versed in the same paranoia that frequently animates the same city. Other novels less centralized to a time and place focus on the larger America and its the systems that govern the massive countryscape. The short story ‘Low-Lands’ and the novel Vineland, despite their massive difference in location and plot, (‘Low-Lands’ follows a garbage man and attorney in Long Island, while Vineland observes a hippy father and his daughter look for their missing anarchist wife and mother respectively) showcase the ultimate thread that defines every Pynchon book, however: down on their luck individuals dealing with changes they can’t quite come to comprehend. 

Novels like Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason & Dixon go farther back documenting early World War II and America’s discovery and eventual formation into the country we know today. Both go deep into the same problems that frequent Pynchon’s novels: paranoia, inevitability, and the breakdown of the social fabric. Pynchon demonstrates a unique ability to transcend character, setting, and style to capture his novel’s essence. He represents an era of artistry central to America’s mythos. Luckily the craft that he’s discovered and cultivated has been collected in the beautiful Huntington Library.

Even in cartoon form, Pynchon held on to his faceless status in 2004, the Simpsons episode release date, carrying on a trend he began with his first book Gravity’s Rainbow (1973). 19 years later, Pynchon, now 85, seems poised to hold up the tradition even as he sells his archive to the Huntington Library of San Marino California. The archive will feature decades worth of research, personal artifacts, and finally early drafts of his novels, but the collection will not offer Pynchon fans any photos or videos of the man himself.