SUPER RARE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT SIGNED BY THOMAS PYNCHON REGARDING HIS POST MODERNIST NOVELLA ‘THE CRYING OF LOT 49’
DS, signed “Thomas Pynchon,” one page, 7.75 x 12.75, November 24, 1966. Memorandum of an agreement in which Pynchon grants the publishing company Gyldendal Forlag license to publish a Danish translation of his book The Crying of Lot 49 for “an advance of Three Hundred Dollars…payable on signature of this agreement on account of a royalty of Five per cent…of the published price on the first Five Thousand…copies sold and Seven and a half percent…of the published price on all copies sold thereafter.” Signed at the conclusion in blue ballpoint by Pynchon. In fine condition.
Published in 1966, The Crying of Lot 49 follows Oedipa Maas in her quest to uncover a possible world conspiracy involving the rival mailing distribution firms of Trystero and Thurn und Taxis. Despite its short length and Pynchon’s own dissatisfaction with the final product, The Crying of Lot 49 proved an intricate postmodernist work; scholars continue to plumb the novella’s labyrinthine plot structure, various cultural allusions, and the obscuration of its title character, all literary devices which closely mirror Pynchon’s influential 1963 debut novel, V. Given Pynchon’s well-publicized reputation as one of the literary world’s most reclusive novelists, any item directly related to the author exists unto itself as a unique find, with signed items being of the utmost rarity. A tremendous document from early in the great writer’s career.
