Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977
Page 23
Incidentally, you do not tell me what advance I would get under the arrangement you discuss in your letter.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: WALTER J. MINTON
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Ithaca, NY.
January 14, 1958
Dear Mr. Minton,
My husband asks me to acknowledge your kind letter of Jan. 10. Please do not worry about his warning to Mr. G.: Mr. G. in his letters tries to establish as a fact that my husband has agreed to negotiate on the basis of the original agreement and moreover, is willing to modify the terms of this agreement to Mr. G.'s advantage. My husband thinks (and so do I) that it is essential for the time being to insist that 1. the old contract is non-existent and 2. any agreement, if arrived at, would be an entirely new matter.
The three solutions1 you suggest seem to sum up the situation, except that my husband is convinced that Mr. G. will accept a lesser royalty. He was in a most conciliatory mood in November, changed his attitude entirely when Putnams entered the picture, and, if left alone for a fortnight or so, will probably come back to his senses.
His letter of Jan. 7 contains a curious sentence: "Our trial against the French Home Secretary takes place this afternoon". This letter was mailed on the 8th. Does not it strike you as strange that he says nothing about the verdict? The agent (whom we do not consider entirely trustworthy) has not written us about it either. An adverse decision of the Court might prove very much to my husband's advantage since there seems to be a provision in the French law releasing the author if the publisher cannot continue to publish his book. We shall try to find out about the verdict. You may find it easier to do than it will be for us under the present circumstances. Please let us know in any case what you think of these suggestions.
Sincerely,
(Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)
TO: DMITRI NABOKOV
MS, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
The Corsair's Lied
To D. N.
I have on deck my rebec,
And zwiebacks from a wreck,
And zephyrs waft my xebec
From Lübeck to Quebec.
Vladimir Nabokov
Jan. 14, 1958
1. Father and I were discussing the rhymability of "xebec," and he made up this little poem for me, which contains not only a proper rhyme for it but also a pair of iambic rhymes on the same sound, plus two internal nuggets. DN.
TO: MAURICE GIRODIAS
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY., USA
January 16, 1958
Dear Mr. Girodias,
I was glad to hear that the ban on LOLITA was lifted. Many thanks for your wire.
This new situation raises a new question. I don't think you quite understand my position: as far as I am concerned the original agreement between Olympia and me is null and void. In order to sell your edition you need a new agreement.
I would be willing to consider a reasonable offer from you for such a new agreement, provided that it took care of all the aspects of the matter, including the American, British and foreign-language rights (the latter item being the least important of the four). Such an agreement would have to be a three-way contract: 1) Between you and Putnams, and 2) Between me and Putnams, regarding an American edition; and 3) between Olympia and me, regarding the other matters.
The thing has been dragging on too long. I would prefer to arrive at an out-of-court settlement, but one way or another I am resolved to have the whole matter settled now.
I suggest that you think matters over once again and see if you can suggest a reasonable settlement. I shall not accept a 50/50 division of the American royalty.
I wish to repeat that all the suggestions in this letter are made by me on a voluntary basis, that I consider myself under no obligations, and that these suggestions will in no way prejudice any rights or privileges that are mine in consequence of the abrogation of my agreement with Olympia Press.
May I hear from you within ten days? If no agreement can be reached I shall consider myself obliged to obtain an injunction against the sales of your original edition of LOLITA.1
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: WALTER J. MINTON
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Ithaca, N.Y.
January 25, 1958
Dear Mr. Minton,
Here is a copy of a letter I have just received from Mr. G. in reply to the one I wrote him (of which you have a copy).
I do not know why he thought that I "had long ago abandoned the claim."1 Nor do I know what he is driving at now. I am inclined to assume that his suggesting that my lawyer get in touch with his lawyer means that Girodias is ready to discuss matters and settle out of court. Do you agree with me that it might be worth trying to ask a lawyer to do so? And, in that case, would you suggest a lawyer whom I could engage—someone versed in literary litigation, but not likely to charge me more than I can pay?
On the other hand, if you feel sure that all this is but another Olympia trick, and that nothing can be gained by going along with Mr. G.'s suggestion, I would be prepared to ask you to write him a letter on the following lines:
That though I was very eager to take the matter to court, you prevailed upon me to give up the idea;
Time being of the essence, you convinced me to accept the arrangement you had worked out with him, with the provision however, that he take 7% and I get 8% (if only because I have to pay the agent's fee).
Before you write such a letter, please let me hear from you once more. I would also like to know what would be the largest advance I could expect under this arrangement.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: PASCAL COVICI
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Itnaca, N.Y.
February 3, 1958
Dear Mr. Covici,
My husband asks me to thank you for sending him the Stanislaus Joyce book.1 He found in it some very interesting information and is very happy to possess it in his library.
He thanks you, too, for THE LEOPARD.2 To my regret, I am to tell you that he did not think much of it. In his opinion it belongs essentially to "juvenile literature" with its ready-made types, emotions and situations.
With best wishes,
Sincerely yours,
(Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)
TO: WALTER J. MINTON
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Ithaca, NY
March 1, 1958
Dear Mr. Minton,
Thanks for the agreements, one of which I am returning to you, signed and witnessed.
I have almost finished checking the published text of LOLITA for misprints etc., and shall mail it to you, together with the Anchor article, on Wednesday.
Please find enclosed two scrapbooks with clippings on LOLITA—one multilingual, the other sent me by my Swedish publisher. I have sold the following rights: French (Gallimard), German (Rowohlt), Italian (Mondadori), Swedish (Wahlstrom & Widstrand), Danish (Reitzel), Dutch (Oisterwijk). Is there anything else you would like to have or to know? List of publications? Curriculum vitae? If you want to know more about me and my background, you can look it up in CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE (Harper). Do you need a photograph?
What about the jacket? After thinking it over, I would rather not involve butterflies. Do you think it could be possible to find today in New York an artist who would not be influenced in his work by the general cartoonesque and primitivist style jacket illustration? Who would be capable of creating a romantic, delicately drawn, non-Freudian and non-juvenile, picture for LOLITA (a dissolving remoteness, a soft American landscape, a nostalgic highway—that sort of thing)? There is one subject which I am emphatically oppose. to : any kind of representation of a little girl.
Coming back to the contract, I regret we did not d
elete paragraph ii. If taken literally, it would mean that I could never offer you another book. Perhaps you can still find a way of expunging it.
Sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
Encl.
TO: W J. MINTON
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Ithaca, NY.
March 7, 1958
Dear Mr. Minton,
Thanks for your letters and the check.
Yes, I quite see your point and agree with you that the inclusion of the article might add an extraneous element to the book. I would be delighted to have it re-published in the form you suggest,—with Doubleday's consent.
I am sending you herewith a copy of LOLITA which we have checked for misprints and errors. I would not like to change the paragraphic division, and would like to be consulted on any questions of punctuation that may arise. A number of words are not in Webster, but will be in its later editions.
Jason Epstein has just sent me an amusing trifle: page 5 of the Sunday Times magazine (March 2), with the picture of a Lord & Taylor's blond model standing near a table on which one can clearly distinguish volume 2 of the Olympia Press LOLITA.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: PETER RUSSEL1
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
March 12, 1958
Dear Sir,
My husband had hoped to answer your letter himself but the pressure of work keeps interfering with his plans. He therefore asks me to write you for him.
In the first place he wants me to thank you for your very nice letter, for the copy of NINE and for your catalogues.
LOLITA does not exist in Russian. The ban on the Parisian edition has been lifted now. There will be an American edition of the novel, published by Putnams early next fall. Gallimard will do it in French as soon as the translation is completed. Further translations, either already published or to come out soon, are the Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Italian and German ones.
My husband further wants me to say that he shares your admiration for Osip Mandelshtam, but not for Ezra Pound. He wishes you every success with your Russian issue of NINE. As to his own trans lations from Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev, he does not want to reprint them. His approach to the problems of translating has changed since he published his THREE RUSSIAN POETS. He does not believe in verse translations any more. He thinks that a translation's merit is determined by its literalness alone, and that, since a verse translation is inevitably a compromise, it cannot claim to be a "translation", but is, at best, an imitation or (at its worst) a mutilation of the original. In this spirit of absolute literalness, my husband has just completed the translation of EUGENE ONEGIN. Pushkin's stanzas are rendered in iambic lines of varying length; but rhyme has been sacrificed to reason. If you are interested, he could give you a few stanzas for your Russian issue. He regrets that lack of time makes it impossible for him to advise you on the choice of your material.
Of my husband's other works, you could probably obtain THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT (New Directions), SPEAK, MEMORY (Victor Gollancz) and PNIN (Heinemann). SPEAK, MEMORY is the English equivalent of the American CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE. My husband's Russian books (with the exception of the three you have) can be only obtained from second-hand dealers.
I hope I have answered your questions.
Sincerely yours,
(Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)
TO: REV. LOUIS M. HIRSHSON1
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
March 13, 1958
Dear Sir,
I thank you for your invitation to attend the lecture to be given at your Colleges by Mr. Ustinov of the Soviet Embassy, and the reception that will follow.
I never have attended, nor ever will attend, any function to which Soviet agents are invited.
Very truly yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: Calder Willingham
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Ithaca, NY.
March 30, 1958
Dear Mr. Willingham,
I had started to read a library copy of TO EAT A PEACH when I received your sumptuous gift for which I thank you very warmly. I thought Daddy and the Bowel Expert came out marvelously well; but I am not quite sure of the artistic validity and necessity of the intercourse scene at the end. I then turned to NATURAL CHILD and came into closer contact with your magnificent talent. The structure of the whole thing is very striking and original. I admired greatly such things as the repeated modulations in pages 126 and 131. Wonderful, too, is the Beethoven record booming suddenly in that terrible pansy apartment—and the spices, the spices! In 1954 my wife and I, when trying to establish convenient headquarters for our butterfly-hunting expedition in New Mexico, made the dreadful mistake of renting sight unseen an adobe house in dreadful trite Taos,—and that house belonged to a (less opulent) Mariss, with a carriage-lamp on a pole just inside the entrance hall, and fancy danglers, and spices.
I also want to thank you for your amiable letter. I informed my publisher of your kind suggestion and also of your advice regarding the False Lolita.1 And of course the Coney Island episode is a masterpiece.
Yours sincerely,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: JOHN E. SIMMONS1
CC, 2 pp.
Ithaca, N.Y.
April 8, 1958
Dear Mr. Simmons,
I am sending you eleven folders (further called "volumes") containing my translation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" and a copious Commentary to it. You will find a table of contents at the beginning of vol. 1.
This typescript is a precious one (I have only one other copy) in view of the tremendous amount of research involved. There does not exist any other literal and complete English translation of this greatest masterpiece of Russian literature. Nor is there in any language, including Russian, the kind of thorough commentary I have appended to it.
It is of the utmost importance that whoever reads this typescript should bear in mind that it is based on individual research and contains many new interpretations and discoveries. Both in Russia and in this country a number of scholars are working in the same general field (Pushkiniana),—I might mention in passing that political issues play some part—and this calls for a very careful choice of publisher's reader. I have taken to task a number of inept commentators and have trodden on many toes.
I am giving you the names of three Russian scholars well qualified to examine the book. My personal contacts with them have been very limited, but I know them to be honest scholars. I am definitely op posed to the book's going to anybody connected with either Columbia or Harvard. I must have your assurance that, should you desire to have the book read by anyone (outside of your office) other than the persons I mentioned, you will discuss your choice with me.
My permanent address is: Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell. My telephone number (residence) to the end of May is Ithaca 3–2015. I am not connected in any way with the Russian Dept, in Merrill Hall.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
Prof. Albert Parry, Russian Literature Department, Colgate University
Prof. Ekaterina Wolkonsky, Department of Russian, Vassar College
Prof. George Ivask, Germanic and Slavic Department, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.
TO: RANDALL JARRELL1
CC, 1 p.
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY.
April 12, 1958
Dear Mr. Jarrell,
I wish to thank you for your charming letter. I shall be delighted to avail myself of the invitation to deposit some of my manuscripts at The Library of Congress.
During the last ten years I have been moving from one furnished house to another, and my manuscripts and papers are stored in a rather haphazard way, mostly at my office at Cornell. It will take a little time to unearth them and sort them out. By the way, would you be interested in the Mss. of
my earlier works (Russian-language novels)?
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: WALTER J. MINTON
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
April 23, 1958
Dear Mr. Minton,
I have just received the five designs and I quite agree with you that none of them is satisfactory. I have looked up in The Reporter the picture you mention but find it to be in the primitivistic wobbly style which I dislike.
I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain. And no girls.
If we cannot find that kind of artistic and virile painting, let us settle for an immaculate white jacket (rough texture paper instead of the usual glossy kind), with LOLITA in bold black lettering.
Just to make sure: I assume that the photostatic copies, the questionnaire, the second photograph and the PNIN clippings have all reached you safely.
Sincerely,