Editing Thomas Pynchon (section)

====1950s====
{{Main|V.}}
[[File:V. (1963 1st ed cover).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=Book cover illustration of the letter "V." on an abstract horizon|''[[V.]]'' (1963)]]
After leaving Cornell, Pynchon began to work on his first novel, [[V.|''V''.]] From February 1960 to September 1962, he was employed as a technical writer at [[Boeing]] in [[Seattle]], where he compiled safety articles for the ''Bomarc Service News'', a support newsletter for the [[Bomarc Missile Program|BOMARC surface-to-air missile]] deployed by the [[U.S. Air Force]].<ref name=wisnicki2000>{{cite journal|last1=Wisnicki|first1=Adrian|title=A Trove of New Works by Thomas Pynchon? Bomarc Service News Rediscovered|journal=Pynchon Notes|date=2000|volume=46-49|issue=Spring 2000}}</ref> Pynchon's experiences at Boeing inspired his depictions of the "[[Yoyodyne]]" corporation in ''[[V.]]'' and ''[[The Crying of Lot 49]]'', and both his background in physics and the technical journalism he undertook at Boeing provided much raw material for ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]''. ''V.'' won the [[William Faulkner Foundation Award|William Faulkner Foundation Award For Notable First Novel]] and was a finalist for the National Book Award.<ref name=nba1964>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1964 "National Book Awards&nbsp;– 1964"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415193400/https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1964/ |date=April 15, 2021 }}. National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 29, 2012.</ref>

[[George Plimpton]] gave the book a positive review in ''[[The New York Times]]'', describing it as a [[picaresque novel]], in which "The author can tell his favorite jokes, throw in a song, indulge in a fantasy, include his own verse, display an intimate knowledge of such disparate subjects as physics, astronomy, art, jazz, how a nose-job is done, the wildlife in the New York sewage system. These indeed are some of the topics which constitute a recent and remarkable example of the genre: a brilliant and turbulent first novel published this month by a young Cornell graduate, Thomas Pynchon." Plimpton called Pynchon "a writer of staggering promise."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Plimpton |first=George |date=April 23, 1963 |title=The Whole Sick Crew |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-v.html |access-date=April 8, 2023 |archive-date=January 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230105195701/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-v.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'''s review of ''V.'' concluded: ''"V.'' sails with majesty through caverns measureless to man. What does it mean? Who, finally, is V.? Few books haunt the waking or the sleeping mind, but this is one. Who, indeed?"<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=March 15, 1963 |title=Books: A Myth of Alligators |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,870237-2,00.html |access-date=}}</ref>''.''