Cornell, Ithaca, NY.
February 5, 1957
Dear Katharine,
Here is a little note for The New Yorker. I shall send you my ballad in the course of this week. Many thanks for your charming letter.
Department of Mimicry
In The New Yorker of February 23, 1957, page 31, Mr. Heilman writes that if the two butterflies he mentions, a skipper and a Lycaenid (the correct genus of this "shasta comstocki" is by the way Icaricia Nabokov, 1944), are not named after John Henry Comstock, Professor of Entomology in Cornell University, he will eat his cyanide jar. Since these butterflies are named after Dr. John A. Comstock, renowned for his excellent work in the life history of Californian lepidoptera, I can only hope that Mr. Heilman's jar is not loaded. Incidentally, pinching the thorax is a much simpler way of dispatching a butterfly.1
I hope you are enjoying Florida.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: MAURICE GIRODIAS
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell, Ithaca, NY., USA.
February 12th, 1957
Dear Mr. Girodias,
Many thanks for your interesting letter and enclosures. I am following the developments of the case with keen interest. Apart from my personal involvement I can also sympathize with your predicament and the injustice of which you are the victim.
I very much regret that I lack the funds to attack the ban independently, as you suggest. I simply do not make enough money with my books to permit such action, much as I would like to undertake it. Apart from this, I wish to give you every assistance in your campaign. You may use in your pamphlet, described in your letter of February 8, my essay written for Doubleday's Review.1 I have also obtained from them the permission to use in your pamphlet Prof. Dupee's article on LOLITA.2 I am sending you enclosed both pieces. Doubleday were at first opposed to allowing Dupee's article to be used and they consider it a favor that they have finally agreed to have you use it. Of course, we assume that both pieces will be used in a French translation only.
I have no objections to your using in your pamphlet parts of the French translation of LOLITA provided Gallimard agrees to this. I would very much prefer if you did not stress too much my being a professor at Cornell. I am a writer primarily, and this is the important point. I do not mind being referred to as "university professor teaching literature in a great American university". But I would prefer you not to call Cornell by name.
I am enclosing photographs. Return them after use, if this is possible. You will also find enclosed a short curriculum vitae and a list of my published works both of which you may use at your discretion.
I hope you will let me have two copies of your pamphlet,3 one for me, the other for Doubleday.
Wishing you success in this struggle for a just cause,
Sincerely yours,
TO: KATHARINE A. WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell, Ithaca, NY.
February 16, 1957
Dear Katharine,
Thanks for your letter and enclosures. I was sorry to hear of Andy's illness. I hope Florida will do you both a lot of good.
I long to finish my huge Pushkin opus and go back to fiction. That monster has grown far beyond whatever I planned originally but I am glad now that I did not shrink from the task—eight years ago. It is not only going to make "Eugene Onegin" accessible to the foreign reader but will also give the American reader, and the English-reading Russian, a unique and exhaustive work on the subject.
PNIN is about to come out. In fact, I have already received an advance copy from Doubleday. The date is March 7.
I am sorry you never read the LOLITA I sent you. Fascinating things have been happening to it in France. The British Home Secretary begged the French Ministre de l'intérieur to help him look after the morals of the British tourists by prohibiting 25 books published by The Olympia Press (LOLITA included). The French Minister obliged invoking, in the absence of a suitable law, the law against subversive political publications(î). Taking advantage of this, The Olympia Press instituted action against the Minister's decree. And the French press went wild over this attempt against the freedoms. They make a special case for LOLITA, "le célèbre roman de Vladimir Nabokov". They refer to the whole thing as "l'affaire LOLITA", and Gallimard will have it out within a couple of months. Of course, the ban is only for the English-language edition published in France. With the exception of The Daily News(!) American periodicals ignore the whole business.
I am sending you for a second look a little ballad you turned down in 1953.1 I still think it is one of the best things I ever wrote. On second thought—tell me first if I may send it again.
If I find any potential New Yorker contributors in my classes, I shall tell them to go ahead and shall advise you of my discovery.
Véra joins me in sending you both our very kind regards.
Yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: HOWARD NEMEROV
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
February 18, 1957
Dear Mr. Nemerov,
I have just read with great interest and enjoyment your novel The Homecoming Game.
It is a full of true wit, and its structure—the intricate and satisfying interlacings of themes—is admirable. I missed a little description of the football game, which was a kind of scène à faire, but on second thought its omission is subtle.
May I draw your attention to the fact that your man is called "Asher" two or three times by his interlocutors?
It was so very kind of you to send me your book. I hope to have the opportunity of having a good chat with you some day.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: JASON EPSTEIN
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell, Ithaca, NY.
February 20, 1957
I have received from Philadelphia
six more handsome PNINS
Dear Jason,
Would you be willing to advise me on a rather puzzling affair. Girodias (Olympia Press) wants me to sue the French government on account of LOLITA. He thinks it will help his own action if I join the fray. He rather bluntly states that matters would be helped by showing to the judges that "the author of Lolita is an absolutely honorable and authentic writer" and by having "respectability, responsibility and good manners" represented in the affair.
I do not expect to win the "heavy damages" he wants me to sue for. Neither can I lose (financially, that is) since Girodias offers to assume all expenses which will be reimbursable to him only in case I win.
I am rather loath of exposing myself in the company of The Olympia Press. But I am also rather at a loss to find a point of view from which to consider the whole thing.
I have to take into account the fact that so far Cornell has been very tolerant. The matter simply has not been discussed, and no questions have been asked. But might not matters be made worse if I start a litigation, and possibly lose it?
On the other hand, I wish, of course, to give every possible support to Olympia, though personally I do not care if the ban will be lifted or not, since Gallimard is going to publish the French translation anyway.
I would be very grateful if you gave me your opinion on the various aspects of the affair. I trust your judgment, and do not know anyone else whom I would like as much to consult. I hope this will not be too much trouble.1
Girodias is very happy about Dupee's article and my material. He is going to publish, he says, 2000–2500 copies (he mentioned 500 in his previous letter) and sell 1000 numbered copies to defray the costs. Gallimard has agreed to allow him to include excerpts from LOLITA.
Girodias is going to distribute the rest of his pamphlets gratis. Do you have any suggestions to whom he should send copies in this country? He asks me this.
Many thanks for the Lermontov.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: MAURICE GIRODIAS
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y.
March 1, 1957
Dear Mr. Girodias,
Please excuse me for not having answered sooner your letter of February 16th. Before arriving at a decision with regard to a separate action by me in defense of LOLITA before the French courts, I wanted to hear the opinion of some wise and experienced friends of mine. This involved some correspondence with New York.
I have been advised against taking such action, mainly because of the distance, and because I could not possibly come to Paris in the near future. Perhaps even more important is the consideration that my university might not like the idea.
I thank you for your generous offer to finance the litigation and am sorry it is not possible for me to avail myself of it.
Many thanks for the interesting clippings. Please keep me informed of any further developments.
Here are a few people to whom it would be good to send copies of your brochure on LOLITA:
Jason Epstein, Doubleday & Company, 575 Madison Ave., NY 22, NY
Harvey Breit, NY. Times Book Review, NYC
Mrs. Katharine White, The New Yorker, 25 W. 43 St., NY.36, NY
Bennet Cerf, Saturday Review of Literature, 25 W. 45 St., NY
Edward Weeks, The Atlantic Monthly, 8 Arlington St., Boston, Mass.
Philip Rahv, The Partisan Review, 513 Sixth Ave., NY.II, NY.
Edmund Wilson, 16 Farrar Street, Cambridge, Mass.
Prof. Harry T. Levin, 14 Kirkland Place, Cambridge, Mass.
Bertrand Thompson, Calle Rio Negro 1216, Montevideo, Uruguay
F.W. Dupee, Eliot House F 24, Cambridge 38, Mass.
I shall probably think of other names too. Perhaps you could mail me a few copies so that I can dispose of them as I think best.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: JASON EPSTEIN
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell, Ithaca, NY.
March 5, 1957
Dear Jason,
We received your letter1 while I was explaining the arrangement of a sleeping car on the Moscow-Petersburg express train, (in 1872, in connection with Anna Karenin's journey in the first book of the novel which you should some day publish with my notes)—to a class of 146 bored and 4 enthusiastic students.
We came home, had a light lunch, and about half past two received the visit of Mr. Ivan Obolensky from New York.2 We were in the midst of an animated soliloquy3 when you telephoned.
His firm is tremendously eager to acquire the American rights of LOLITA at once and to publish it in the course of this spring. Your letter has, of course, cast a chill shadow on my reaction to this plan. On the other hand, I am sure you understand my situation. I only hope they will not make it irresistibly attractive—but they seem to be planning just that.
My experience with Harpers has been disappointing, I am not sure I would consider any offer coming from them. As to Random, I have never had any dealings with them. What I would like best of all, would be to get an offer from you. Two or three weeks will certainly elapse before anything is signed and settled, but Lolita is young, and I am old.
I apologize once again for not having opened your package at once and for causing you all this additional bother.
Now that the hills of Ithaca are blue and silver in the spring sun, when will you and Barbara come and see us here?
I have written to Paris saying I would not sue in "l'affaire Lolita".
Edmund4 has just written me from Cambridge.
Sincerely,
TO: MAURICE GIRODIAS
CC, 2 pp.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y., U.S.A.
March 5, 1957
Dear Mr. Girodias,
The possibility has arisen that a new publisher in New York may want to bring out LOLITA.
As you remember, several months ago there had been a considerable interest on the part of several American publishers, none of whom came through with an offer. One of the largest houses in US came close to making an offer, but gave up, partly in fear of unavoidable court proceedings, partly because of your insistence on "a genuine partnership agreement". At the time they wrote refusing to consider such an agreement and saying that in their opinion no serious American publisher would do otherwise.
Moreover, their lawyers warned them that my agreement with Olympia does not establish your right to license an American edition, and that before buying the American rights they would have to insist that this agreement be amended. I did not follow up this matter at the time since that particular firm gave up negotiations anyway, having been put off by all these complicated circumstances and an American edition of LOLITA became, at best, an extremely remote possibility.
I now hear from another firm who wants to make a definite offer and bring out the book without delay.1 This is a newly created firm, and they seem willing to undertake the risk of litigation, hoping that LOLITA could help them to make a name for themselves. I suggest therefore that you and I attend now to the rewording of our agreement, to avoid delays when their offer arrives.
Please understand me correctly. I quote from a legal opinion obtained on this subject: "It is clear in the contract that Olympia has the exclusive right to sell its version in the English language throughout the world. At the same time, the contract does not specify that Olympia has the right to license an American edition. According to the agreement, it can sell only its own edition here."
I suggest that we amend our agreement in such a way as to make possible the sale of American rights to an American publisher. Would you send me a new contract or would you like me to send you a draft of such a contract? It would have to comprise a clause authorizing me to dispose of the American rights to our mutual advantage, and stipulating your terms in case I succeed in doing so. Or else you could say that you would be willing to give up your American rights in the book for a consideration, and I suggest that you quote a lump sum and also an alternate arrangement.
Please bear in mind that i) this is not an old, opulent firm and 2) that we have to create conditions under which an American edition can be brought out, since otherwise you could only bring in 1500 copies of the original edition—after which, by September 1960, the copyright will expire, and the loss will be yours as well as mine.
I hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: KATHARINE A. WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell, Ithaca, NY.
March 6, 1957
Dear Katharine,
I am sending you The Ballad of Longwood Glen, which I wrote in 1953.1 Ever since then I have been reworking it, so that this final product differs considerably from the one which The New Yorker rejected some three years ago. I want to ask you to consider it very carefully. With my usual modesty I maintain it is the best poem I have composed—far superior, for instance, to the Evening of Russian Poetry.
At first blush this ballad may look to you like a weird hybrid between Shagall and Grandmother Moses. But please stick to it as long as you can bear, and by degrees all kinds of interesting shades and underwater patterns will be revealed to the persevering eye. If you still hate it, please feel no qualms—just send it back. I hope to have something else, in prose, for you soon.
Very cordially yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
Encl.
TO: JASON EPSTEIN
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell, Ithaca, N.Y.
March 10, 1957
Dear Jason,
Your letters are always a delight to me, both in matter and form. As you well know, nothing in the world would please me better than to have Doubleday bring out LOLITA.
I realize
the difficulties and dangers you describe if LOLITA were to come out without due preparation. There is one important fact, however, that I am compelled to consider right now. I have been working on my Pushkin for the last two years with fantastic concentration which excluded all other literary pursuits (the only vacation I took was to attend to the Lermontov book). The New Yorker paid me exceedingly well—up to 2500 for every Pnin installment—but I have not had anything to sell since I finished that book. I cannot possibly live on my Cornell salary only. Now comes this unexpected offer from Obolensky. As I intimated to you over the telephone, my reaction to it is not a matter of principle but a matter of money. I am not particularly impressed by his firm but I cannot afford to miss the opportunity of not missing the opportunity to sell the book.
I am delighted about the new plan you adumbrate. I shall not enter into any agreement with Obolensky for a couple of weeks, in the course of which time I hope to have your decision.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: MAURICE GIRODIAS
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
March 10, 1957
Dear Mr. Girodias,
I have carefully read your letter of March 5, wherein you urge me to reconsider my decision in regard to lolitigation.
You say that you fail to understand why Cornell might not like the idea of my intervention etc. To this I would like to say that the fact that my academic standing was introduced into the controversy was very embarrassing to me. I have an established literary reputation on both sides of the ocean, and I published this book as a writer, not as a university professor.
Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977 Page 19