Pynchon Works: “Mason & Dixon”

Often causing future strangers to remember them as Dixon and Mason

Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon.

Mason & Dixon
Henry Holt & Co., 1997.

Although one-half of the Spermatikos team believes Mason & Dixon is Pynchon’s best novel, that half has unfortunately yet to make his usual prolix comments. This page will be developed in a future expansion. Until then, the resources below may be useful.

Spermatikos Logos Resources

Dr Larry Daw’s Review — Spermatikos Logos’ own Dr Larry Daw’s disappointed review of Mason & Dixon.
Mason & Dixon: Three Pages a Day — Toby Levy of the Pynchon List spent nine months making a close reading of Mason & Dixon. The result is a 95-page document that examines the book page by page, offering plot summaries, definitions for arcane vocabulary words, useful Web links, and more. A very impressive achievement, we are happy to offer Toby’s annotations as a PDF.
Mason & Dixon Criticism — Criticism and reader’s guides about Mason & Dixon
Mason & Dixon Papers & Essays — Selected papers and essays about Mason & Dixon can be found here.
Official Press Release — From Henry Holt & Co., 1997.

Offsite Resources

The Mason & Dixon Wiki — Maintained by the indomitable Tim Ware, this excellent wiki is a growing Web guide organized like an online encyclopedia. It also holds a slew of amazingly useful resources! The definitive M&D Page.
Peter Schmidt’s Mason & Dixon Reading Notes — Broken down into 78 chapter summaries, Schmidt provides notes and plot synopsis.

Selected Articles

The Latest Line of Thomas Pynchon
Streitfeld, David
Washington Post, October 21, 1996. Streitfeld speculates on Mason & Dixon and discusses the Wanda Tinasky letters.
Gravity’s End
Ulin, David E.
Salon.com, 25 April 1997. Ulin discusses Mason & Dixon galleys, Pynchon’s anonymity, and the Wanda Tinasky letters.
A Conversation between David Ulin and Brian Stonehill
Ulin, David E.
L.A. Times, 30 April 1997. David Ulin interviews Pomona College’s Brian Stonehill on the release of Mason & Dixon.
A Personal Foray Into the Long-Lost Pynchon Tapes
Nazaryan, Alexander
New York Times, 19 May 2017. Nazaryan listens to Mason & Dixon on cassette.

Selected Reviews

Pynchon Draws the Line
Skenazy, Paul
From the April 27, 1997 San Francisco Chronicle, this mixed review is from the provost of Kresge College at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Pynchon Hits the Road With Mason and Dixon
Kakutani, Michiko
From the April 29, 1997 New York Times, this review considers M&D an ambitious and poignant epic.
Telluric Texts, Implicate Spaces
Mattessich, Stefan
An insightful and positive analysis of the work from Pynchon scholar Stefan Mattessich.
Surveyors of the Enlightenment
Moody, Rick
From the May 1997 Atlantic Monthly, this positive review also discusses Pynchon and his techniques.
Roman à Cleft
Keough, Peter
From the May 1997 Boston Phoenix, this review is by their film editor.
Dog’s Dinner of a Book
Skea, Anne
From the May 1997 Eclectica, Skea finds it a glorious mess.
Z. Pynchon’s Tiresome Mind Games
Kirn, Walter
From the May 6, 1997 edition of Slate, this is a negative but very attractively laid-out review.
The Great Divide
Boyle, T. Coraghessan
From the May 18, 1997 New York Times, this is a very positive review.
Entropology
Menand, Loius
From the June 12, 1997 New York Review of Books, a very detailed review of an “astonishing and wonderful” book.
Author Pynchon Returns
Reid, James
From the June 13, 1997 Penn State Daily Collegian (a paper your humble quailish narrator one wrote for!), this review finds the novel good, but lacking in urgency.
Pynchon’s Line Dance
Brazell, Bill
From the June 26, 1997 Metro. Compares Pynchon to the Bard, and provides a few links.
Cryptic Messages
de Pastino, Blake
From the July 27, 1997 Alibi. Enjoys the themes, but finds the prose style too thorny.
Mason & Dixon
Siegel, Mark
From the August 1997 H-Net, Siegel calls this the “greatest of Pynchon’s works.”
Making the Rounds of History
Hinds, Elizabeth Jane Wall
From the 1998/99 Electronic Book Review (ebr8), this is a fairly sophisticated look at M&D.
Linear Pynchon
Pelovitz, David
From e-Zone, a positive and descriptive review, with some (largely out-of-date) links.
Far Out Again with Pynchon
Moroney, Mic
From the Irish Times, a generally amused and positive review comparing the novel to The Sotweed Factor.
Mystery Train
Livingstone, David B.
A mixed review from Spike magazine.
A Review of Mason & Dixon
Alford, Steven E.
Professional book reviewer Steve Alford gives a mixed review to M&D.
Mason & Dixon
Unruh, Wes
From Green Man Review. A short, positive review from the “roots and branches of arts and culture.”

Reference

Mapping the Line: Primary and Secondary Sources

Close Encounters of the First Kind, 1585-1767 — “Details from the map of the boundary survey between Maryland and Pennsylvania by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS (Maryland State Archives Map Collection), MSA SC 1427-74-1/2.”
About.com: Mason-Dixon Line — About.com’s page has images and links.
The Mason-Dixon Line: A Short History — By By Robert B. Van Atta. From the November 12, 2000 issue of the Greensburg, PA Tribune-Review.
Cope, Thomas D. “A Frame of Reference for Mason and Dixon.” Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 19 (1945).
Cummings, Hubertis M. The Mason and Dixon Line: Story for a Bicentenary 1763-1963. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1963.
Danson, Edwin. Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
Ecenbarger, William. Walkin’ the Line: A Journey from Past to Present Along the Mason-Dixon. New York: M.Evans & Co., 2000.
Hollis, H.P. “Jeremiah Dixon and His Brother.” Journal of the British Astronomical Association 44 (1934).
Latrobe, John H.B. The History of Mason and Dixon’s Line. Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1855.
Lefever, Barbara Susan. The Stargazers. York, Pennsylvania: Printing Express, 1986. (novel)
Mason, A Hughlett (ed.). The Journal of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1969.
Mathews, Edward Bennett. “History of the Boundary Dispute between the Baltimores and Penns Resulting in the Original Mason and Dixon Line.” Report on the Resurvey of the Maryland-Pennsylvania Boundary. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Harrisburg Publishing, 1909.
Miers, Earl Schenck. Border Romance: The Story of the Exploits of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. Newark, Delaware: Spiral Press, 1965.
Robinson, H.W. “Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779): A Biographical Note,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 94.3 (June 1950): pp. 272-4
St. George, Judith. Mason and Dixon’s Line of Fire. Putnam, 1991
Authors: Allen B. Ruch & Rob Jackson (With help from Tim Ware and the Pynchon List)
Last Modified: 24 August 2024
Main Pynchon Page: Spermatikos Logos
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com

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