Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977

by Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: EDWARD E. BOOHER1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  February 4, 1968

  Dear Mr. Booher,

  VN asks me to thank you for your letter of Jan. 26th which arrived only yesterday, Feb. 3, and for the clipping from The New Republic. He finds it a pleasing thought that you bought his Russian translation of LOLITA for your Russian-reading child.

  He would like his Russian KING, QUEEN, KNAVE to be published again.2 We have a treasured copy of the first edition that we could lend provided it could be handled carefully by the printers. We lent our copies of INVITATION TO A BEHEADING and THE LUZHIN DEFENSE to Radio Liberty in Munich (who reproduced them for distribution in Russia, clandestine, of course). The Russian editions are also represented in the bigger American university and public libraries and could be borrowed from there (if the printers undertake to return the book undamaged). There are also a few drawbacks: The book was published more than 28 years ago and was never copyrighted. It is, of course, protected by the Bern Convention in Europe. It was written at a time when VN was stateless and a resident of an European country. The Copyright Office may decide that for these reasons it still could be copyrighted on publication, but this is not certain. Also: the original version was set in accordance with the rules of the "old orthography". During the revolution some of those rules were modified, three then currently used letters were scrapped (actually, five but two had not been much used anyway), certain case endings were changed, so were certain rules governing the use of prefixes. All these changes don't bother an educated Russian of the new formation but would they not put off American students? The Russian publishers who published VN's Russian books have long ceased to exist. I doubt they would have had any claims in any case since the books have been out of print for more than twenty years, and all the publishing houses had been liquidated before or during the war.

  VN asks me to ask you if you would not consider taking over from Phaedra the Russian version of LOLITA? We don't know if Phaedra would agree to sell the rights but we could ask in case you were interested. (LOLITA, of course, is printed in accordance with the new orthographic rules). But LOLITA was set in Russian and the costs of production were high.

  With best wishes from VN and me.

  Sincerely

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  TO: EDWARD E. BOOHER

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  February 23, 1968

  Dear Mr. Booher,

  In response to your letter of February 19th I shall mail to you on Monday under separate cover and as thoroughly registered as I can manage our copy of the Russian edition of KING, QUEEN, KNAVE.

  My husband would appreciate hearing from you how long an introduction you had in mind—how long should it be to help copyright the work? He thinks he could easily manage a very short one (about one page, possibly a little longer) but would find it hard to take enough time from ADA for a longer one. He also wants me to point out to you that the following considerations might help the copyrighting: he was a stateless emigrant residing in Germany at the time he wrote the book. The laws ruling the publication and copyrighting of works by American authors may not apply in the case of the books he wrote before coming to the U.S. and being naturalized. The rules are not very clear in the case of such works. The Copyright Office was very lenient and copyrighted for him all his works which were not yet 28 years old when we applied for registration. As far as we know the rules have been more and more liberally applied in recent years.

  VN would very much like to know, if you do not mind divulging it, who was it that informed you about ADA.1 No one (but I and my typist) has read as much as one line of the work so far. In complete confidence I wish to tell you that there now exist 500 pages typed and corrected which make up the first part of the book. VN believes that the rest of the book will make up another three hundred pages.

  When the TIME, INC. edition of BEND SINISTER will be in your hands, I shall send you a list of a dozen misprints to be corrected in your edition.

  My husband joins me in sending you our best wishes.

  Sincerely,

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  PS. VN would like to know what terms you have in mind for the Russian edition of KING, QUEEN, KNAVE.

  TO: PROF. PAGE STEGNER

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  February 26, 1968

  Dear Page,

  Your letter of Feb. 20th arrived today. I therefore think it safer to send my answer to your new address, it would hardly reach Columbus before March 1.

  Here is a suggestion for a title from VN: "A Nabokov Congeries" or "Nabokov's Congeries." He would like to have your and Viking's reaction to this "perhaps fanciful suggestion."

  We hope you will be very happy in your new job and surroundings. I have seen a nice review of your book—by Granville Hicks, I believe.

  With cordial greetings, from VN and from me.

  Sincerely,

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  TO: MARTIN J. ESSLIN1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  February 28, 1968

  Dear Mr. Esslin,

  My husband asks me to convey to you his gratitude for letting him see your article which he finds admirable, and to tell you that he likes tremendously your "elegant amalgamation of Esslinabokov."

  The following are the changes which he would very much like you to accept:

  p. 1. He would like you to omit the words from "after years of exile" to "America", substituting for them "temporarily from his country of adoption", or something to this effect. He does not intend to perpetuate his stay in Europe and would not like it to appear that he does. For the same reason he would like you to insert "may" after "Montreux" at the end of the same paragraph.

  p. 5. He would like you to omit the parenthetical sentence "(whose society......intellectuals)" because he does not wish to offend his American friends. For a different reason which it would take too long to explain but which has the greatest importance for him at this time, he begs you to omit the entire passage from "the name of the heroine" to "France for America in 1940. But." He suggests that you begin the following sentence with "The first book to be published by N.'s new publishers, McGraw-Hill, will be King, Queen, Knave, etc."

  p. 6. The fact is that he published The Gift, Invitation to a Beheading and Defense without alterations, but made important changes in Despair (including a completely new scene).

  p. 6. He begs you to delete "After a brief consultation between Nabokov and his wife it was agreed that". And so do I. It would embarrass us very much if this sentence was allowed to remain.

  p. 11. He would like to have the word "peace" removed from the sentence "Cape Codpiece Peace Resistance".

  This is all apart from a few misprints which we corrected from sheer habit.

  We both keep a most pleasant remembrance of your visit to Montreux.

  With best wishes from VN and me,

  Sincerely yours,

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  TO: PROF. SIMON KARLINSKY1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  February 28, 1968

  Dear Mr. Karlinsky,

  We are very grateful for the article you so kindly sent us. And we are delighted that you will come to Europe and visit us next year.

  There is not very much chance of VN giving a lecture anywhere in the near future. He is completely absorbed in his writing. However, he thanks you very much for asking.

  We wonder if you realize that, although Tsvetaeva2 was living in great poverty she was not much worse off than most writers and especially poets of the period (Russian, of course)? In order to exist Ladinsky3 worked as something of a handyman in Posledniya Novosti. Others drove taxis' or performed menial work.
Many had no working permits and could not round out their income from writing. After the early Twenties during which émigré publications sprouted all over free Europe, and even at such places as Harbin, the opportunities of being published began to shrink. Space was at a premium. Even accepted works had to wait their turn for months. Once you take this into consideration you will see that Tsvetaeva was published more than most other poets, even by those who did not care much for her as a person. Her complaints are very much exaggerated: every reading person in emigration knew her poems, they ap peared in most anthologies, some were extremely popular. And, of course, she was highly valued as a prose writer. In her letters there is a constantly recurring whining note which is not exactly endearing.

  I hope you will not mind too much my saying so but we who witnessed all the stages of emigration see things from a different angle. I think Prof. Struve will concur.

  Cordially,

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  *) One of those who drove a taxi for years was Korvin-Piotrovski4

  TO: LAUREN G. LEIGHTON1

  TLS (XEROX), 1 p.

  Montreux Switzerland

  March 14, 1968

  Dear Mr. Leighton,

  My husband asks me to thank you for your interesting letter of Feb. 22, and also to answer it. The questions you raise are very painful and complicated. The people you write about risk very much in seeking even indirect contact with VN. But VN cannot even be sure that what they stand for is true freedom as we know it in the West, and not merely a different brand of communism (as did, f.i., Pasternak in his dreadful ZHIVAGO—so highly praised by naive libertarians in and out of Russia). Those poor young people may well be exposing themselves to dire consequences on mistaken premises. They do not even realize that every book by VN is a blow against tyranny, every form of tyranny. Until correspondence can be equally safe for both sides—and therefore may be guaranteed against any kind of misunderstanding—VN has made it a rule not to enter into contact with people living beyond the iron curtain, for their sake.

  Regarding the translation of his works into Russian VN is quite certain that the knowledge of the English language by the would-be translator is insufficient for any translation approaching his own very rigid demands. He plans gradually to translate his English novels into Russian. Some of his Russian novels have been recently reprinted and are slowly reaching some readers in Russia. He translated himself his LOLITA into Russian, and knows that at least 500 copies of it have been introduced into Russia by volunteers. He thinks that his best contact with Russians in Russia is through his books. Of course, he does not have to know of your friends' translating one or another of his English novels into Russian and circulating mimeographed copies in clandestine fashion among their friends, but he cannot bless or authorize a translation he will not be able to check and correct.

  The only other thing I must add: Please be careful. No matter how careful you think you are, agents read letters, lists of dissenters are compiled, and should the Soviet regime decide to give an example of its omniscience and of its omnipotence over its wretched subjects, your friends may become the victims of such examples.

  Sincerely yours,

  Véra Nabokov

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  TO: PROF. CARL R. PROFFER

  TL (XEROX), 2 pp.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  May 1, 1968

  Dear Mr. Proffer,

  Many thanks for both copies of your elegant book with the very cleverly stylized butterflies.1 Ample praise should, and will, be bestowed upon your Keys by other readers but let me, a fellow-glossarist, contribute the following notes.

  p. 28. An error. The correct allusion is to Baudelaire's "Le crépuscule du matin" (marred by the horrible Hugoesque line ix), the second and third verses of which may be lowelled as It was the hour when noxious dreams in swarms Make dark-haired adolescents writhe in dorms.

  p. 30 In the autumn of 1958, when working on my Pushkin at the N.Y. Library, I glimpsed the title "Lolita", a novel by some obscure Frenchman (the name escapes me but could be easily checked in the title catalogue), wrote out my slip and gave it to an attendant. With impatient disgust (it had evidently happened before) he tore my slip in two and uttered the immortal phrase: "This is not the Lolita you want."

  p. 33 I am not sure you realize that the Kreutzer Sonata picture is the one reproduced in the Taboo perfume ads (in The New Yorker, for instance).

  p. 63 Gustave is Flaubert who has a Mlle Lempereur (I forget the exact spelling) perform similarly in Madame Bovary. Nijinski (have lost page, and your index does not supply it). A reference to a famous photograph that appeared in Life or in some European counterpart of it and showed poor mad Nijinsky, then almost fifty, executing a pathetic entrechat for the reporters.

  p. 143 (n. 77) In a little diary I kept in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1951 I find listed under January 6 several projects I was engaged in at the time, and among them is The Kingdom by the Sea, the first working title of Lolita, or more exactly of a fair draft on index cards of the twelve first sections plus several passages from the second part (I am, as I have often mentioned a tesselist).2

  p. 144 Thrice misprinted French word.

  p. 153 (n. 1) On p. 70 of the Putnam edition (August 1958) Humbert clearly states "...Lolita's brother, who died at two when she was four." I think that there should have been page references in Appendix B for I cannot locate my mistake about Lolita's brother but dimly recall correcting something of the kind, and other Tolstoy-time items, in my Russian translation of Lolita (Phaedra, 1967, New York).

  Finally, and privately, Saul Bellow, a miserable mediocrity, should never have appeared on the jacket of a book about me. Is it too late to eliminate that exhaust puff?

  Oh yes, two more minute flaws:

  p. 12 Ponderosa is not Italian but the Latin specific name of the tree Pinus ponderosa; and

  p. 140 côte à côte, and not côte à côte

  Please let me know if you would like to use these corrections and bits of information in print. It would warm the bockles of old Boldino's bart.3

  I am working on a tremendous new novel and send you my very best regards.

  Cordially yours,

  Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: MARSHALL BEST, CHARLES NOYES, AND PETER KEMENY1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux, Switzerland

  October 4, 1968

  Dear Sirs,

  My husband was delighted with the witty cable received on publication date of NABOKOV'S CONGERIES.2 He almost cabled back "cannot conceal contentment nabocon", but decided it would not be quite as amusing.

  I need not repeat that we are very pleased with the book. I can only add that all those who saw it thought it wonderful—both the selection and the presentation.

  I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Noyes for his letter of September 4. The three packages with the author's copies sent by surface mail arrived safely on October 2.

  With VN's greetings and mine,

  Sincerely yours,

  (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

  TO: WILLIAM MCGUIRE

  TLS (XEROX), 1 p.

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  Montreux, Switzerland

  November 8, 1968

  Dear Bill,

  I do not wish to rush you in any way, but now that I have completed my 880-page Ada I feel singularly free and would be eager to stem the tide of another work of fiction by occupying myself with the publication of the revised EO.1 Do you think such a plan possible? Please let me know. My seventieth birthday next year is a rather depressing smudge on my mental horizon.

  We have been expecting you and Paula this summer—in vain. We hope all is well with you.

  Cordially,

  V

  Vladimir Nabokov

  TO: HEATHER MANSELL1

  CC, 1 p.

  Montreux Palace Hotel

  Montreux, Switzerland

  Nov. 25, 1968

  Dear Miss Ma
nsell,

  Your letter of 22 Nov. has just arrived, with the covers for the four books, and I hasten to reply.

  INVITATION TO A BEHEADING: Design and blurb fully acceptable.

  LAUGHTER IN THE DARK: Both design and blurb also acceptable. I have those stills.

  SPEAK, MEMORY: Would like to see blurb. The butterfly part of the cover design is not acceptable. Those two meleagers (?) have nothing to do with the Russian background of the book since they do not occur in the north of Europe; and the female is quite incorrectly colored. Please, no butterflies at all on the cover unless you want to use the white-and-black mnemosyne of the Weidenfeld jacket (also facing their page 19).

  NABOKOV'S DOZEN: Blurb: What on earth does "well-varnished truths" mean? Design: This is an impossible monster. Why don't you use, for instance, the CLOUD, CASTLE, LAKE idea (the picture of a lake, with a tower and cloud reflected in it)? But for Heaven's sake remove that horrible face with the crude wings.

  PNIN: Blurb: Delete the absurd reference to "McCarthyism"—which is not a particular phobia of mine, or of Pnin's. I also would like to replace "ludicrous progress" by "bizarre progress." Design: Completely unacceptable. This corny caricature is meaningless, badly drawn and repulsive. Pnin is an attractive and admirable person. One possibility of replacing that cartoon would be to use the very charming design on the cover of the paperback edition published by Avon Publications, Inc., 575 Madison Ave., New York, if you can acquire it from them. Or just omit picture altogether.