Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr was born to Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Sr. and Katherine Frances Bennett Pynchon on May 8, 1937 in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York. They moved to East Norwich when Thomas, Jr was just a child. His father became town supervisor of Oyster Bay and later an industrial surveyor. He has two siblings, sister, Judith and brother, John.
He graduated from Oyster Bay High School in 1953 at the age of sixteen, salutatorian of his class and winner of the Julia L. Thurston award for “the senior attaining the highest average in the study of English.” A scholarship to Cornell University and enrollment in the division of Engineering Physics followed. At the end of his sophomore year he left Cornell for service in the Navy.
He returned to Cornell in the fall of 1957 transferring to the College of Arts an Sciences from which he would attain his degree in English. During this time, he took a course from Vladimir Nabokov, was on the editorial staff of the The Cornell Writer , and also published his first short story: “The Small Rain” (The Cornell Writer, March 1959). He received his B.A. in June of 1959 with “distinction in all subjects.”