by Robert Roper
Transparent Things (Nabokov), (1)
Trilling, Lionel, (1)
Twain, Mark, (1), (2), (3), (4)
Unsoeld, Willi, (1), (2)n
Updike, John, (1)n, (2)n
Utah, Nabokovs’ visit to (1943)
butterfly collecting during, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)
climbing of Lone Peak, (1), (2)
Laughlin as host of, (1), (2), (3)
love of outdoors and, (1), (2)
Nabokov on scenic views in, (1)
Nabokov’s daily life during, (1)
and spiritual aspects of mountain climbing, (1)
Utah, Nabokovs’ visit to (1949), (1)
Utah, Nabokovs’ visit to (1956), (1)
Vermont, Nabokovs’ visits to, (1), (2)
Vietnam War, Nabokovs’ views on, (1), (2), (3)n
VN (Pnin narrator/character)
echoes of Nabokov in, (1)
role of, (1)
triumph over Pnin, (1)
on Waindell College, (1)
Vyra (Nabokov family estate), Nabokov’s butterfly collecting at, (1)
The Waltz Invention (Nabokov), (1)
Weeks, Edward A., (1), (2), (3)
Weidenfeld, George, (1)
Wellesley College, Nabokov at
Dmiti Nabokov and, (1)
efforts to return to, (1)
family residence at, (1)
friends and colleagues at, (1)
lecture series at (1941), (1), (2)
popularity among faculty, (1)n
salary, (1)
teaching style, (1)
as writer in residence, (1), (2), (3)
Wells, H. G., (1)
Western U.S.
and American literature, (1)
European views on, (1)
landscapes, Nabokov on, (1), (2)
postwar American fascination with, (1)
wartime tourism in, (1)n
Western U.S., Nabokovs’ visits to. See also Arizona; Colorado; New Mexico; Utah; Wyoming; Yosemite National Park; entries under driving tours
attraction of West, (1), (2)
and butterfly collecting, (1), (2), (3), (4)n
as drain on Nabokov’s finances, (1)
extensive travel, (1), (2)
happiness of, (1), (2)
hopes of return to, (1)
inability to visit in mid-1940s, (1)
loss of maps and travel notes for, (1)
Nabokov’s health and, (1), (2)
and pleasure of isolation, (1)
regular visits to after 1947, (1)
as setting for Lolita, (1)
trip to (1954), (1)
trip to (1959), (1)
White, Katharine, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8)n, (9)n
Whitman, Walt, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)
The Wife of Martin Guerre (Lewis), (1)n
Wilder, Billy, (1)
Wilder, Thornton, (1)
Wilson, Edmund, (1)
The American Jitters, (1)
Apologies to the Iroquois, (1)
appearance of, (1)n
and Bend Sinister, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)
career blossoming of late 50s, (1)
character of, (1)n
and Doctor Zhivago, (1), (2), (3)
To the Finland Station, (1), (2)
Great Depression and, (1)
literary connections of, (1)
and Lolita, writing of, (1)
on Lolita, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)n
marriage to Mary McCarthy, (1)
Memoirs of Hecate County, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)n, (7)n
and Nabokov, expectations for, (1)
Nabokov dream about, (1)
Nabokov’s comments on essays by, (1), (2)
Nabokov’s early literary connections and, (1), (2), (3), (4)n
Nabokov’s falling-out with, (1), (2)n, (3), (4)n
Nabokov’s friendship with, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8)
Nabokov’s gratitude to, (1)
Nabokov’s New Yorker deal and, (1)
on Nabokov’s oeuvre, (1), (2), (3)n
Nabokov’s respect for, (1)
Nabokov’s study of American literature and, (1), (2)n
Nabokov’s submission of work for comment by, (1), (2)n
on Nabokov’s success, (1)n
and The New Yorker, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)n
Nicolas Nabokov and, (1), (2)
on Pale Fire, (1)n
Patriotic Gore, (1)
on Pnin, (1)
political views, Nabokov and, (1), (2), (3)
proposed collaboration with Nabokov, (1)
The Scrolls from the Dead Sea, (1)
and translation of Nabokov’s The Gift, (1)
visit to Nabokovs in Switzerland, (1), (2)
A Window on Russia, (1)
Wilson, Nabokov’s correspondence with
on California, (1)
congenial tone of, (1)
on Eugene Onegin, (1)
on fans, letters from, (1)
on financial woes, (1)
on health issues, (1), (2)
introductory letter, (1)
on “Lance,” (1)n
on linguistic precision, (1)
on McCarthy’s review of Wilder, (1)
on mountain climbing, (1)
on Nabokov’s early lectures, (1)
on Nabokov’s employment, (1)
publication of, (1)n
on Tolstoy, (1)
on Twain, (1)
on Western novels, (1)n
on Western travels, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10)n
on work at MCZ, (1), (2)
on writing projects, (1)
Wilson, Elena, (1), (2)
Winner Take Nothing (Hemingway), (1)
Winters, Yvor, (1)n
World War II
death of Sergei Nabokov and, (1)
Nabokov’s arrival in U.S. and, (1)n
Nabokovs’ flight from, (1)
Nazi roundups of Jews and, (1)
and Soviet Union, Nabokov on, (1)
writing career in Europe, (1), (2), (3)
writing career in U.S.
and audience, building of, (1), (2), (3)
as basis of reputation, (1)
connections and early publications, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)n
and critiques of contemporary writers, (1)n, (2), (3), (4)n
desire for commercial success in, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)
early critical reception, (1)
early U.S. publisher rejections, (1), (2)
meteoric rise, (1)
Nabokov’s promotion efforts, (1), (2)
parallels to Salinger’s career, (1)
poor sales of early publications, (1)
successes, Nabokov’s recounting of, (1), (2)
turn to American fiction, (1)
writing style of Nabokov. See also detail, Nabokov’s appetite for
American life and, (1), (2)n
appealing aspects of, (1)n
closeness of mind to mind in, (1), (2)
conscious literary echoes in, (1)
density of references in, (1), (2), (3)
in early novels, (1), (2)
influences on, (1)n
in Laughter in the Dark, (1)
in Lolita, (1), (2), (3), (4)
metaphor and comparison in, (1)
modernism and, (1), (2)n, (3)n
parody and, (1), (2)n
in Pnin, (1), (2), (3)
as satire, Nabokov’s rejection of term, (1)
and severing of text from reality, (1)
struggle to define, (1)n
Wyoming
Disappointment Peak, Dimitri’s attempted climb of, (1), (2), (3)n
mountains of, as attraction, (1)n
Nabokovs’ pleasure in isolation of, (1)
Nabokovs’ visits to, (1), (2)n, (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)
Yanovsky, V. S., (1)
Yosemite National Park, (1)
history of, (1)
Nabokovs’ trip to (1941), (1)
notable sites and visitors, (1)
U.S. automobile culture and, (1), (2)n, (3)
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Nonfiction
Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War
Fatal Mountaineer: The High-Altitude Life and Death of Willi Unsoeld, American Himalayan Legend
Fiction
The Savage Professor
Cuervo Tales
The Trespassers
In Caverns of Blue Ice
Mexico Days
On Spider Creek
Royo County
A NOTE ON THE AUTHOR
Robert Roper has won awards for his fiction and nonfiction alike. His previous works of nonfiction include Now the Drum of War, a biography of Walt Whitman and his brothers in the Civil War, and Fatal Mountaineer, a biography of American climber-philosopher Willi Unsoeld, which won the 2002 Boardman Tasker Prize from the British Alpine Club. His works of fiction include Cuervo Tales, a New York Times Notable Book, and, most recently, The Savage Professor, a novel. He has won prizes or grants from the NEA, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Joseph Henry Jackson competition, and the Royal Geographical Society of London. His journalism appears in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, American Scholar, Outside, and other publications. He lives in California.
Bloomsbury USA
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
1385 Broadway
50 Bedford Square
New York
London
NY 10018
WC1B 3DP
USA
UK
www.bloomsbury.com
BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
This electronic edition published in June 2015
© Robert Roper 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
Excerpts from Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940–1971, by Edmund Wilson, copyright © 1979 The Estate of Edmund Wilson, used by permission of the Wylie Agency LLC. Excerpts from Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya by Vladimir Nabokov, copyright © 1979 The Estate of Vladimir Nabokov, used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC. Excerpts from Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya reprinted by permission of the University of California Press.
Excerpts of unpublished letters credited to The Estate of Vladimir Nabokov are from the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation. Copyright © The Estate of Vladmir Nabokov. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.
Excerpts from Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940–1977, edited by Dmitri Nabokov and Matthew Bruccoli. Copyright © 1989 by the Article 3b Trust Under the Will of Vladimir Nabokov. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
A portion of chapter 7 of this book appeared in slightly different form in The American Scholar, Summer 2015. A portion of chapter 5 appeared in slightly different form in The Hopkins Review, volume 8, number 2, 2015.
ISBN: HB: 978-0-8027-4363-3
ePub: 978-1-63286-086-6
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Roper, Robert, 1946–
Nabokov in America: on the road to Lolita / Robert Roper.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-8027-4363-3 (hardback) 978-1-63286-086-6 (ebook)
1. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899–1977. 2. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899–1977—Homes and haunts—United States. 3. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899–1977—Travel—West (U.S.) 4. West (U.S.)—Description and travel. 5. Authors, Russian—20th century—Biography. 6. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. I. Title. II. Title: On the road to Lolita.
PG3476.N3Z8375 2015
813′.54—dc23
[B]
2014045288
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com. Here you will find extracts, author interviews, details of forthcoming events and the option to sign up for our newsletters.