born May 8, 1937, Glen Cove, Long Island, N.Y., U.S.
U.S. writer.
He studied physics at Cornell University and worked briefly as a technical writer before devoting himself to fiction. Beginning with his first novel, V (1963), a complex, cynically absurd tale that juxtaposes scenes of 1950s hipster life with symbolic images of the entire century, his works have combined black humour and fantasy to depict human alienation in the chaos of modern society. The idea of conspiracy is central to The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) and to his masterpiece, Gravity's Rainbow (1973), an extraordinary novel about the end of World War II, full of paranoid fantasy, grotesque imagery, and esoteric scientific and anthropological material. Later works include the novels Vineland (1990) and Mason & Dixon (1997) and the story collection Slow Learner (1984). He has lived in hiding or incognito for decades, refusing to grant interviews or be photographed.