Wanda Tinasky

For a while, it was purported that none other than Thomas Pynchon had been writing these letters to the Boonville newspaper, roughly in the time frame that it was speculated that Mr. P was living in Mendocino county writing "Vineland." The author is supposedly a bag lady living in Fort Bragg.

As it turns out, it was somebody else (check out Wikipedia), but these letters are pretty entertaining. Sadly, the reputed author of the letters (an obscure Beat poet) killed his wife and then himself. Since I had some friends living in Mendocino in the late 70's, early 80's and visited them often, I can tell you that these letters capture the zeitgeist of the area during that time pretty well (as does "Vineland"!). A collection destined for obscurity, I imagine.… (más)