Is this a picture of Thomas Pynchon aged 51?

Probably not. But...

I was proofreading some articles for Orbit this morning (which, by the way, will come out now as soon as I have DOI number permissions), when, during fact checking, I came across the following:

The picture is a yearbook entry from the Kansas State University yearbook, 1988, which was digitized last year. The image is not particularly clear -- and I cannot account, in any way, for why Pynchon would have been in this photograph (born in 1937 he went to Cornell university) -- but it does appear to show a moustached man, of about age 51 (in my estimation; he doesn't look like an undergraduate) clearly labelled "Thomas Pynchon" in the caption.

A joke? Named coincidence? Seems unlikely to actually be Pynchon, so I don't feel too bad about putting this up!

Image copyright, used under fail dealing provisions for purposes of scholarship on a non-commercial basis.

Is this a picture of Thomas Pynchon aged 51? was originally published by Martin Paul Eve at eve.gd: Martin Paul Eve on June 08, 2012.