Editing Thomas Pynchon (section)

====''Mason & Dixon''====
{{Main|Mason & Dixon}}
{{multiple image
 | total_width = 320
 | image1 = Mason & Dixon (1997 1st ed jacket cover).jpg
 | alt1 = Book cover illustration zoomed in on the ampersand between the words "Mason & Dixon" written in ink on parchment

 | image2 = Mason and Dixon.png
 | alt2 = Stippled illustration of two men on a hill overseeing the American wilderness

 | footer = ''[[Mason & Dixon]]'' (1997) is a fictionalized account of the lives of [[Charles Mason]] and [[Jeremiah Dixon]], the historical surveyors of the [[Mason–Dixon line]].}}

The meticulously researched novel is a sprawling [[postmodern literature|postmodernist]] saga recounting the lives and careers of the English astronomer [[Charles Mason]] and his partner, the surveyor [[Jeremiah Dixon]], whose survey of the American West resulted in the [[Mason–Dixon line]], during the birth of the [[American Revolution|American Republic]]. The dust jacket notes that it features appearances from [[George Washington]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Samuel Johnson]] and a talking dog. Some commentators acknowledged it as a welcome return to form; [[T. C. Boyle]] called it "the old Pynchon, the true Pynchon, the best Pynchon of all" and "a book of heart and fire and genius."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boyle |first=T. C. |date=May 18, 1997 |title=The Great Divide |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/970518.18boylet.html |access-date=January 5, 2023 |archive-date=January 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105195700/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/970518.18boylet.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Michiko Kakutani]] called Mason and Dixon Pynchon's most human characters, writing that they "become fully fleshed-out people, their feelings, hopes and yearnings made as palpably real as their outrageously comic high jinks."<ref name="Kakutani">{{Cite news |last=Kakutani |first=Michiko |date=April 29, 1997 |title=Pynchon Hits the Road With Mason and Dixon |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/27/daily/pynchon-book-review.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |access-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-date=March 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320231744/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/27/daily/pynchon-book-review.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |url-status=live }}</ref> The American critic [[Harold Bloom]] hailed the novel as Pynchon's "masterpiece to date".<ref name=bloom2003>{{cite book|last1=Bloom|first1=Harold|title=Thomas Pynchon|date=2003|publisher=Chelsea House|isbn=978-0-7910-7030-7}}</ref> Bloom named Pynchon as one of the four major American novelists of his time, along with [[Cormac McCarthy]], [[Philip Roth]] and [[Don DeLillo]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Pierce |first=Leonard |date=June 15, 2009 |title=Harold Bloom on ''Blood Meridian'' |newspaper=[[The A.V. Club]] |url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/harold-bloom-on-blood-meridian,29214/ |access-date=August 27, 2013 |archive-date=November 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105103802/http://www.avclub.com/articles/harold-bloom-on-blood-meridian,29214/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Bloom |first=Harold |date=September 24, 2003 |title=Dumbing down American readers |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/dumbing_down_american_readers |work=The Boston Globe |access-date=September 23, 2015 |archive-date=March 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320210202/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/dumbing_down_american_readers/ |url-status=live }}</ref> For ''[[The Independent]]'' feature Book Of A Lifetime, [[Marek Kohn]] chose ''Mason & Dixon'' "precisely because my own teens were long gone by the time it came out: it showed me that being exhilarated by prose is not just an effect of youthful overexcitement."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kohn |first=Marek |date=June 4, 2010 |title=Book Of A Lifetime: Mason & Dixon, By Thomas Pynchon |work=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-mason-dixon-by-thomas-pynchon-1990622.html |access-date=April 25, 2023 |archive-date=April 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425221347/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-mason-dixon-by-thomas-pynchon-1990622.html |url-status=live }}</ref>