Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977

by Vladimir Nabokov

  Grateful greetings.

  TO: ALEXANDER FRATER1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, February 18, 1967

  Palace Hotel

  Dear Sir

  I have received your kind letter offering me to interview Mr. Stravinsky in Marrakesh.

  I am afraid there must be some misunderstanding. I hardly know him. I do not care for music in any form. I never interview anybody anywhere.

  Yours sincerely,

  Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: PROF. PAGE STEGNER

  CC, 2 pp.

  Montreux, February 20, 1967

  Palace Hotel

  Dear Page,

  Here are my husband's considerations regarding your list of contents for a Portable Nabokov.

  Novel: He agrees that an entire novel should be included, and his preference goes to PNIN, as does yours.

  Poems: He agrees with the following choices: "An Evening of Russian Poetry"; "On Translating EO" (but the last line should be changed to "Dove droppings on your monument"); "A Discovery"; "The Refrigerator Awakes"; "Ballad of Longwood Glen"; and "Restoration".

  He does not agree with "Exile", "Softest of Tongues" and "Dream" and suggests instead:

  "Rain"; "Ode to a Model"; and "Lines from Oregon."

  Memoirs: He agrees to your selections from Chapters i, 2, 4, 9, 11, 14, and 15. But Chapter 6 should not be cut. He would like you to include it in its entirety, possibly instead of "Mademoiselle" (which you are listing under Short Stories, and of which more below)

  Essays and Criticism: Chichikov (yes, but there are some indispensable revisions that V.N. would make); "On a Book entitled LOLITA" (yes); "Foreword to BEND SINISTER" (yes).

  V.N. is against the inclusion of "Problems of Translation" and "Art of Translation".

  "Reply to My Critics", published in Encounter, Feb. 1966. The inclusion of this piece V.N. considers very important because Mr. Wilson furtively continues his personal attacks; and any part or parts of the Commentary to Eugene Onegin (f.i. the big bit on Romanticism or the one on Duels)

  Short Stories: "Spring in Fialta", "Signs and Symbols", "First Love", "That in Aleppo Once", "Mademoiselle" and "Vane Sisters" have V.N.'s approval ("First Love", Ch.7 of "Speak, Memory", and "Mademoiselle", Ch.5, should be printed from the new'revised edition, Putnam 1966; you can include them under Short Stories, if you so prefer, but "Mademoiselle"—not "Mademoiselle O"—in its final form has been shorn of its fictional wool, says V.N., and should be used only as it appears in the final 1966 ed.)

  He does not agree with the inclusion of "Lik", "The Aurelian", and "Conversation Piece".

  Instead, he suggests: "Lance", "Assistant Producer", "Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster"; and "Cloud, Castle, Lake".

  For balancing the "Essays & Criticism" section, V.N. suggests that you include his Foreword to Dmitri's translation of "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov.

  He would also like you to include part of an Onegin chapter as a sample of translation. If you want to include it, he will supply the text. Let me know if you have any preference as to the passage (V.N. thinks part of Ch. One would be best), and how long a bit you want.

  V.N. would want to check all the texts very carefully. He may want to make changes in the proofs or a final typescript of the book. Revisions may be also needed because of misprints existing in the published texts.

  Should you want any further changes in the contents of the volume VN will be glad to consider and discuss them.

  Kind regards from us both (Dmitri is away in Italy).

  Sincerely,

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  TO: SATURDAY EVENING POST

  PRINTED LETTER1

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Vladimir Nabokov writes

  In the Feb. issue of the Post, in a profile of Vladimir Nabokov entitled THE ARTIST IN PURSUIT OF BUTTERFLIES, Herbert Gold quoted the novelist as having said about a mutual friend:

  'Of course, he is a very nice fellow.

  Of course, do not lend him any money.

  Of course, he is completely untalented.

  Of course, he is a liar and a hypocrite.

  Of course, he is a pederast.

  Of course, isn't that good you know him,

  he's a very nice fellow.'

  As a result of the article, the following correspondence ensued. We believe it has a peculiar documentary interest.

  —THE EDITORS.

  To the editor of The Saturday Evening Post:

  January 21

  Sir,

  There are many excellent things in Mr. Gold's article, but it is most unfair of him to have quoted a converesation he and I had about a common friend. That friend was, and is (for he is still very much alive—and very much upset) no other than Sam Fortuni, the poet. Sam tells me that he has seen Mr. Gold only once, forty years ago, and would have never dreamed of asking him for a loan. I may add that—in refutation of the statements attributed to me—Sam does have some talent, loves women, always tells the truth, is not a particularly nice fellow, and does not exist.

  This is one of the reasons I invariably beg interviewers either to stick to the script which I supply in the form of written answers to their written questions, or else, if they prefer their own impressions to my expressions, to let me check the article for factual slips before publication.

  Despite his promise to do so, Mr. Gold has not complied with my request. I could not have dreaded the German TV team's impending visit which was to include my admirable translator Dieter Zimmer whom I was very keen to meet. The Montreux Palace Hotel does not consist of "cuckoo-clock carved wood." Cornell's "deans and administrators" would certainly confirm that I never "tormented" them. There are other embarrassing inaccuracies in the article but these will suffice as examples. I hope Mr. Gold, who seems to like anagrams, will take a good look at the name of our poor old furious poet.

  VLADIMIR NABOKOV

  Montreux

  February 3

  Dear Mr. Nabokov,

  Thank you for your letter of January 21. We are ready to publish it in our Letters column, as you requested, but I must confess that I am puzzled by the question of "Sam Fortuni." If such a person exists, it would be clearly libelous to identify him as the subject of the comments quoted in the article. This would be true even if there is a Sam Fortuni somewhere whom you have never met. On the other hand, assuming your last sentence to mean that the name is an anagram, we have struggled in vain to decipher it, and there is even one student of Nabokoviana who argues that the hint of an anagram means that it isn't an anagram.

  What I suggest is that the letter be cut and edited to delete all reference to Fortuni, as in the attached copy. If this is satisfactory, please let me know.

  Very truly yours,

  OTTO FRIEDRICH

  Managing Editor

  February 11

  Dear Mr. Friedrich,

  I am in receipt of your letter of February 3—with your version of mine of January 21.

  Sorry—the Letters to Editors that I write now and then are never edited. The reason is plain. If A writes to B, and B revises A's letter, the correspondence is no longer between them but between AB and B—which does not make sense and has no value.

  I am afraid I must ask you to print my letter, in full, and not your abridged version of it. If you do not care to do so, please send me back my typescript. If you want it after all, it might be wise to send me the galley so as to avoid misprints—such as the accidental omission of my reference to the German TV, a major point in my letter.

  Since I state in my letter that "Sam Fortuni" is my invention, and his name my riddle, it cannot be true that there is anything libelous in my comments, even if an old poet of that name could dig himself up and stomp, very drunk, into your office. An elderly woman in Colorado called Lolita Haze pestered me at one time with cranky protests but neither she nor the namesakes of any of my other characters have ever found a lawyer to champion their cause.

  The very si
mple recombination SAM-FORTUNI= 12345678910= 35178942106=MOST UNFAIR (a phrase actually used in my letter) might be unscrambled, if you like, in an editorial footnote for the benefit of inexperienced Nabokovians.

  Yours truly,

  Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: PROF. ALFRED APPEL, JR.1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, March 28, 1967

  Palace Hotel

  Dear Mr. Appel,

  Minton showed me your notes to page 252. Theoretically, the idea is splendid but specifically it is a great pity that the three first notes of this display batch are wrong.

  Note a) "Quelquepart" means "somewhere" in French and that was Quilty's only reason in using it. There is no harm (except that it is quite irrelevant) in adding that "There is a Quelpart (sic) Island off Korea," but the rest of the note is misleading and must go.

  b) "few known Asian specimens"(!) A great number of Asian specimens of various forms of Lycaeides are preserved in English, German, and Japanese museums.

  c) "bears Nabokov's name." An improper phrase. Although a genus (Nabohovia Hemming) and several new species (e.g., Eupithecia nabohpvi McDunnough) do bear my name, no Lycaeides species or subspecies happens to be named after me. I have described, however, several new members of that genus, and my name is appended to the names I have given them (e.g., L. sublivens Nabokov) in the same way as that of the great Canadian lepidopterist is appended to the name of a moth I discovered (see above).

  I am quite sure that in the present case items (b) and (c) are unnecessary, but these taxonomic niceties may come handy elsewhere.

  Note 2. "An undine is a nixie"—okay, but the main point is that "undinist" is a person (generally male) who is erotically excited by another person's (generally female) making water (H. Ellis2 was an "undinist", or "fountainist," and so was Bloom3).

  Note 3. "Arsene Lupin" has no connection whatever with Edgar Poe's story in my story, or the name of a common weed (the foodplant of a huge number of Lycaenids). Arsene Lupin is a detective character (created by Leblanc or Blanc, check) as famous in France as Sherlock Holmes is in England. The phrase about the entomologist's standing by the host plant is meaningless since it is the caterpillar and not the adult insect that feeds upon it.

  I shall check all your notes but please do leave out all reference to lepidoptera, a tricky subject (which led the unfortunate Diana so dreadfully astray). There are a couple of passages where lep notes are quite necessary but these I shall supply myself.

  Very cordially,

  (VN)

  TO: PROF. ALFRED APPEL, JR.

  CC, 2 pp.

  Montreux, Palace Hotel, April 2, 1967

  Dear Mr. Appel,

  I see that in my copy of Putnam's hardcover I have corrected one misprint (p.6, there should be a full stop after "sophomore") and the following author's errors:

  p. 6 September-October (instead of "September")

  p. 8 There should be a date after the John Ray signature: August 5, 1955

  p. 266 Late in September (instead of "early") and p. 232 flashlight (instead of "torch light")

  I have corrected in my Russian translation a curious dream-distortion on p. 305. Q. could not be trudging from room to room since H. H. had locked their doors, but this is okay on second thought and need not be corrected in your edition.

  Thanks for your delightful letter of March 28. Here are my answers to your questions:

  Note "Dr. Blue" does not have the slightest connection either with my Blues (Lycaenids), or with Blue, Kubrick's formidable lawyer.

  "Strange Mushroom." Somewhere, in some collection of "cases," I found a little girl who referred to her uncle's organ as "his mushroom."

  "The Lady who loved Lightning." Yes, this is the play they go to in Wace; but I do not think it has much to do with H.'s mother's being killed by lightning—though the connection is cozy and tempting.

  "Dark Age." Yes, italics everywhere.

  Neither the "Girl in Green" nor "I was dreaming of you" contains any allusion.

  Note 2 No allusions in these titles. The slip of the pen on p. 34, 3rd line, is "disappeared" (i.e. referring to Dolores Haze) replacing the obvious "appeared" (in the plays Miss Quine appeared in).

  Note 3 Mirana: a heat-shimmer blend of "mirage", "se mirer", "Mirabella" and "fata morgana".

  Note 4 That poet was evidently Lepping who used to go lepping (i.e. lepidoptera hunting) but that's about all anybody knows about him.

  Note 5 Yes, Mona Dahl. Vindictive Hum!

  Note Widworth—non-allusive.

  Note 7 This is Burger's "Lenore", not Poe's!

  Und hurre, hurre, hop, hop, hop! See my Onegin Commentary, vol.3, p.154, where you will also find the irresistible line "Und aussen, horch! ging's trap, trap, trap"

  Note 8 Thomas the Apostle, a believer in the tactile sense. The other Tom had nothing.

  Note 9 OTTO OTTO. A magical name that does not change in the looking glass.

  The late tennis player Bill Tilden who, in the twenties, incurred Wimbledon's wrath by consorting with ball boys, wrote fiction under the pen name of Ned Litam. He now plays with those balls on Elysian turf. Shall we spare his shade?

  Cordial greetings

  Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: PROF. ALFRED APPEL, JR.

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, April 3, 1967

  Dear Mr. Appel,

  You say you don't understand the mistakes of tricksters but they would not be tricksters if they did not profit by their own tricky mistakes. I have been shown an atrocious one in my commentary, vol.

  3, p.202, where I did not realize that "Red Rover" was by Fenimore Cooper, and had evolved a wonderful but quite incorrect theory instead.

  Re Reds and Blues. I protest vehemently against the lycaenization of my common use of the epithet "blue". In the p. 265 passage, what Rita does not understand is that a white surface, the chalk of that hotel, does look blue in a wash of light and shade on a vivid fall day, amid red foliage. H. H. is merely paying a tribute to French impressionist painters. He notes an optical miracle as E. B. White does somewhere when referring to the divine combination of "red barn and blue snow." It is the shock of color, not an intellectual blueprint or the shadow of a hobby. H. H. knows nothing about lepidoptera. In fact, I went out of my way to indicate (p. 112 and p. 159) that he cannot distinguish a butterfly from a moth, and that he confuses the hawkmoths visiting flowers at dusk with "gray hummingbirds". But on the other hand, I confess that Miss Phalen's name attracted me because phalène means moth in French.

  Re French. Ormonde is a Joycean double-bottomed pun for it not only alludes to his bar but also means, in comic translation, "out-of-this-world" (hors [de ce] monde). The Dubliner's rainbow of children on p. 223 would have been a meaningless muddying of metaphors had I tried to smuggle in a Pierid of the Southern States and a European moth. My only purpose here was to render a prismatic effect. May I point out (at the risk of being pretentious) that I do not see the colors of lepidoptera as I do those of less familiar things—girls, gardens, garbage (similarly, a chessplayer does not see white and black as white and black) and that, for instance, if I use "morpho blue" I am thinking not of one of the many species of variously blue Morpho butterflies of South America, but of the ornaments made of bits of the showy wings of the commoner species. When a lepidopterist uses "Blues", a slangy but handy term, for a certain group of Lycaenids, he does not see that word in any color connection because he knows that the diagnostic undersides of their wings are not blue but dun, tan, grayish etc., and that many Blues, especially in the female, are brown, not blue. In my case, the differentiation in artistic and scientific vision is particularly strong because I was really born a landscape painter, not a landless escape novelist as some think.

  We are going to Italy tomorrow, to Camogli, Hotel Cenobio dei Dogi for several weeks.

  My wife joins me in sending you our warmest regards.

  Cordially,

  Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: JASON EPSTEIN />
  CC, 1 p.

  Camogli (Genova), Italy

  Cenobio dei Dogi

  May 19, 1967

  Dear Jason,

  I would like to submit to you certain considerations in answer to your kind letter of May 10.

  Bollingen. The right to publish a paperback edition of my translation of EO, plus a limited critical apparatus, is provided in my contract with Bollingen. In the foreword I shall supply for your edition1 I shall formulate the necessary credit in a footnote which will also mention that "a second edition of the complete text is in preparation." All this you can check any time you want by calling Bill McGuire at the Foundation. Incidentally, if you publish the paperback it would be in our common interest to have Barton Winer for editor.

  Text. What you are going to publish is not an ordinary paperback reprint of the original edition but something that will require a good deal of work on my part. First of all, the version you will publish will be a new one. Moreover, you will be the first to publish the Lexicon. And last but not least, I shall have to supply the footnotes. This is why I consider that I should be paid separately for the extra work.

  Royalty rate. 7½% will not do. Since it is going to be an "expensive" paperback, the rate should be at least 10% at the start, and should go up after a certain number of copies sold. On the other hand, I would accept an advance of $2.500 (instead of the $3000 you suggest) if you agreed to pay me $1,000 for my work described above, and this thousand should not come out of the royalties.