Thomas Donald Hawkins (January 11, 1927 – September 23, 1988) was an American writer who is the probable author of the Wanda Tinasky letters, once widely thought to be the work of novelist Thomas Pynchon.[1]
Hawkins graduated in 1950 from the University of Washington with a degree in English. He married Kathleen Marie Gallaner and worked for Boeing (as did Pynchon) in the early fifties, then in Beaumont, Texas in television, for station KFDM, and in advertising. In 1960, Hawkins moved to San Francisco to join the Beats, supporting himself as a postal worker.
After his work was rejected by local Beat publications, he took to self-publishing under the name "Tiger Tim" Hawkins. As a fan of William Gaddis, Hawkins discovered newspaper, the self-published Gaddis fansheet of "jack green". He became convinced that green was Gaddis, a detail that would show up in the Tinasky letters. Tinasky also claimed, "The novels of William Gaddis and Thomas Pynchon were written by the same person".
After Hawkins retired, he and Kathleen moved to Mendocino County just outside Fort Bragg,[2] where they lived in poverty for most of the eighties. Hawkins engaged in petty scams and thefts, and took to disguising himself. Kathleen came into an inheritance and bought a car for herself and a pickup truck for her husband. She also bought a kiln, and began a promising career in pottery.
While in Mendocino, [Pynchon] may or may not have written a series of letters to the Anderson Valley Advertiser under the name Wanda Tinasky.