The Real Lolita
Page 21
Letters to Véra (edited and translated by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd, 2015).
WORKS BY OTHERS ON NABOKOV
Alfred Appel, Jr., and Charles Newman, Nabokov: Criticism, Reminiscences, Translations, and Tributes. Northwestern University Press, 1970.
Alex Beam, The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship. Pantheon, 2016.
Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Princeton University Press, 1990.
——, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. Princeton University Press, 1991.
——, Stalking Nabokov: Selected Essays. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Mikita Brottman, The Maximum Security Book Club. Harper, 2016.
Andrew Field, Nabokov: His Life in Art. Little, Brown, 1967.
——, Nabokov: His Life in Part. Viking, 1977.
——, VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov. Crown, 1986.
John De St. Jorre, Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press. Random House, 1994.
Michael Juliar, Vladimir Nabokov: A Descriptive Bibliography. Garland Publishing, 1986.
Michael Maar, The Two Lolitas. Verso, 2005.
——, Speak, Nabokov. Verso, 2010.
Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran. Random House, 2003.
Ellen Pifer, ed., Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita: A Casebook. Oxford University Press, 2003.
Andrea Pitzer, The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov. Pegasus, 2013.
Robert Roper, Nabokov in America. Bloomsbury USA, 2015.
Phyllis Roth, ed., Critical Essays on Vladimir Nabokov. G. K. Hall, 1984.
Stacy Schiff, Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov). Random House, 1999.
Marianne Sinclair, Hollywood Lolita: The Nymphet Syndrome in the Movies. Plexus, 1988.
Russell Trainer, The Lolita Complex. Citadel, 1965.
Graham Vickers, Chasing Lolita: How Popular Culture Corrupted Nabokov’s Little Girl All Over Again. Chicago Review Press, 2008.
Michael Wood, The Magician’s Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction. Princeton University Press, 1997.
Lila Azam Zanganeh, The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness. W. W. Norton, 2011.
ARTICLES AND WEBSITES
Anonymous (attributed to Joyce Haber), “The Lolita Case.” Time, vol. 72, no. 20, November 17, 1958.
Martin Amis, “Lo Hum and Little Lo.” The Independent, October 24, 1992.
Brian Boyd, “The Year of Lolita.” New York Times Book Review, September 8, 1991.
Robertson Davies, “Mania for Green Fruit.” Saturday Night, October 11, 1958.
Alexander Dolinin, “Whatever Happened to Sally Horner?: A Real Life Source of Nabokov’s Lolita.” Times Literary Supplement, pp. 11–12, September 9, 2005.
Leland de la Durantaye, “The Pattern of Cruelty and the Cruelty of Pattern in Vladimir Nabokov.” Cambridge Quarterly, October 2006.
——, “Lolita in Lolita, or the Garden, the Gate and the Critics.” Nabokov Studies 10 (2006).
Sarah Herbold, “(I Have Camouflaged Everything, My Love): Lolita and the Woman Reader.” Nabokov Studies 5 (1998–1999): 81–94.
Elizabeth Janeway, “The Tragedy of a Man Driven by Desire.” New York Times Book Review, August 17, 1958.
Landon Jones, “On the Trail of Nabokov in the American West.” New York Times, May 24, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/travel /vladimir-nabokov-lolita.html.
Erica Jong, “Lolita Turns Thirty: A New Introduction.” New York Times Book Review, June 5, 1988.
Vladimir Nabokov, “On a Book Entitled Lolita.” Anchor Review, 1957. (Reprinted in every English-language edition of Lolita since 1958.)
Heine Scholtens, “Seeing Lolita in Print.” Thesis for M.A. Programme in Book History, Leiden University, 2005 (uploaded in 2014).
Delia Ungureanu, “From Dulita to Lolita.” In From Paris to Tlön: Surrealism as World Literature. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
Dieter Zimmer, “Lolita, USA.” 2007. http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/Lolita USA/LoUSpre.htm.
Dieter Zimmer and Jeff Edmunds, “Vladimir Nabokov: A Bibliography of Criticism.” 2005. http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/forians.htm.
OTHER SOURCES
Amanda Berry and Gina de Jesus, Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland. Viking, 2015.
Phil Cohen, “Local History—Camden, NJ.” http://www.dvrbs.com.
Jeffery M. Dorwart, Camden County, New Jersey: The Making of a Metropolitan Community, 1626–2000. Rutgers University Press, 2001.
Jaycee Dugard, A Stolen Life. Simon & Schuster, 2011.
Howard Gillette, Jr., Camden After the Fall. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
Michelle Knight, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed. Weinstein Books, 2014.
Elizabeth Smart, My Story. St. Martin’s Press, 2013.
Notes
This book is based extensively on primary sources wherever available, including court documents and transcripts, prison records, legislative records, and testimony. I am grateful for the assistance of the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton, New Jersey; the Camden County Historical Society in Camden, New Jersey; the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis, Maryland; the Baltimore City Archives in Baltimore, Maryland; the City Archives and the Free Library of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Our Lady of Victory Center, Bishop Dunne Catholic School, and the Diocesan Archives in Dallas, Texas; and the National Archives offices in Leavenworth, Kansas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and San Francisco, California.
When court documents were unavailable or lost, I relied on newspaper accounts, most notably the Camden Courier-Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, which had the most comprehensive stories about Sally Horner’s abduction, rescue, and death between 1948 and 1952.
I conducted dozens of interviews for the book, including several conversations with Sally’s niece, Diana Chiemingo; one telephone conversation with Diana’s father, Al Panaro, in 2014; two telephone conversations with Carol Taylor, in 2016 and 2017; and two conversations with “Madeline La Salle,” in 2014. Other invaluable sources with firsthand memories of principal characters included “Rachel Janisch” and “Vanessa Janisch”; Fred Cohen and Peggy Braveman; Tom Pfeil; and Emma DiRenzo.
For the Nabokov sections, I relied on files, clippings, note cards, and letters deposited at the Library of Congress as well as at the Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Grateful acknowledgment for permission to access the Berg Collection is given to the Wylie Agency, on behalf of the Nabokov Estate, and to Isaac Gewirtz, Lyndsi Barnes, Joshua McKeon, and Mary Catherine Kinniburgh for their assistance and advice.
I also drew from the earlier work of Brian Boyd, Stacy Schiff, Andrew Field, Alexander Dolinin, and other Nabokov scholars. Schiff also generously shared her time, and advice, in a telephone conversation in April 2017, while Boyd was similarly helpful in an email exchange that same month. A telephone conversation with Walter Minton, in addition to earlier and later quotes, proved helpful with respect to the publication process of Lolita in the United States.
For additional historical context on Camden, I relied on Camden After the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-American City by Howard Gillette (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006) and the Local History: Camden website maintained by Phil Cohen at http://www.dvrbs.com.
ABBREVIATIONS
Berg: Vladimir Nabokov Archives, Berg Collection, New York Public Library, New York, NY
LOC: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov Archives, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
NJSA: New Jersey State Archives, Trenton, NJ
VNAY: Brian Boyd, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (Princeton University Press, 1991)
Unless noted otherwise, all interviews were with the author.
INTRODUCTION: “HAD I DONE TO HER . . . ?”
no “little deadly demon”: Lolita, p. 15.
It happened to the writer Mikita Brottman: Mikita Brottman, The Maximum Security Book Club: Reading Literature in a Men’s Prison, pp. 196–197.
“I hate tampering with the precious lives”: Nabokov, Lectures on Russian Literature, p. 138.
“It is strange, the morbid inclination”: Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol, p. 40.
three increasingly tendentious biographies: The level of acrimony in Andrew Field’s VN (1986) compared with Nabokov: His Life in Art (1967) and Nabokov: His Life in Part (1977) is astonishing; the falling-out between biographer and subject would make an excellent play.
A two-part definitive study: Boyd’s Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years (1990) and VNAY (1991).
Stacy Schiff’s 1999 portrayal: Schiff, Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov).
lifted its fifty-year restriction: Finding Aid, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov Papers, Manuscript Division, LOC.
an earlier Nabokov story, “Spring in Fialta”: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, p. 413.
ONE: THE FIVE-AND-DIME
Sally Horner walked into the Woolworth’s: “Camden Girl Saved from Kidnapper in Calif,” Camden Courier-Post, March 22,1950, p. A1.
on a March afternoon in 1948: From Camden County prosecutor Mitchell Cohen’s remarks at an April 2, 1950, court hearing, reported by the Courier-Post on April 3, p. AI.
A slender, hawk-faced man: Associated Press, March 22, 1950, taken from the Lima (Ohio) News, p. 5.
A scar sliced his cheek: Draft registration card, January 1944.
suicide of her alcoholic husband: Death certificate of Russell Horner, March 24,1943.
Her homeroom teacher, Sarah Hanlin: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23,1950, p. 3.
Emma DiRenzo, one of Sally’s classmates: Interview with Emma DiRenzo, November 13, 2017.
The telephone rang: Camden Courier-Post, March 23,1950.
Ella let her concerns slide: United Press, Salt Lake Tribune, August 6,1948, p. 5.
TWO: A TRIP TO THE BEACH
Robert and Jean Pfeffer were newlyweds: This section draws almost entirely from two newspaper reports that quoted Robert Pfeffer at length: Camden Courier-Post, March 24, 1950, p. 2; and Philadelphia Inquirer, March 24,1950, p. 3.
Ella was relieved: Camden Evening Courier, August 6, 1948, p. I.
Detective Joseph Schultz: Courier-News, Bridgewater, NJ, August 6, 1948, p. 15.
the lodging house: The 203 Pacific Avenue address came from the 1940 census; La Salle was known to return to addresses where he had lived in the past.
“He didn’t take any of his or the girl’s clothes”: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23,1950, p. I.
Marshall Thompson led the search: Camden Courier-Post, March 23, 1950, p. I.
only six months before he’d abducted Sally: Mitchell Cohen’s court statement, April 2, 1950.
THREE: FROM WELLESLEY TO CORNELL
The year 1948 was a pivotal one: This chapter largely draws upon VNAY, pp. 129–135, as well as letters reprinted in Nabokov, Selected Letters: 1940–1977.
Nabokov had also traveled: Itemized road trip summaries available at “Lolita, USA,” compiled by Dieter E. Zimmer, http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/LolitaUSA/LoUSNab.htm.
“lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country”: Lolita, p. 176.
“Beyond the tilled plain”: Ibid., p. 152.
marriage to Véra was once again stable: VNAY, p. 129.
had been ill: Letter from Vladimir Nabokov to Katharine White, May 30, 1948.
“quiet summer in green surroundings”: VNAY, p. 131.
“wrinkled-dwarf Cambridge flatlet”: Ibid.
“ends with a feeling of hopelessness”: Ibid.
Nabokov appreciated Wilson’s gift: Letter from Vladimir Nabokov to Edmund Wilson, June 10, 1948, Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940–1971, ed. Simon Karlinsky, p. 178.
“I was always interested in psychology”: Field, VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov, p. 212.
FOUR: SALLY, AT FIRST
Her legal name: Sally Horner’s birth certificate, issued by the State of New Jersey Department of Health, April 18, 1937, obtained from the Department of Health office in May 2017.
When the subject came up: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, August 2014, and again in July 2017.
William Ralph Swain: Susan Panaro’s birth certificate listing Swain as her father, State of New Jersey Department of Health, No vember 1926, obtained from the Department of Health office in May 2017.
One subject they all fretted about: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, July 2016.
That’s where Ella met Russell Horner: Asbury Park Press, December 9, 1935, p. 9, and June 9, 1936, p. 7.
As for Russell Junior: Social Security application, February 1937.
Susan remembered the beatings: Interviews with Al Panaro and Diana Chiemingo, August 2014.
She took Susan and Sally to Camden: Camden telephone directory, 1946.
Russell became itinerant: Interview with Al Panaro, 2014.
He lost his driver’s license: “‘Short Cut’ Costs Autoist License,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 27, 1942, p. 27.
By the beginning of 1943: Asbury Park Press, March 26, 1943, p. 2.
Later, when it became necessary: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. I.
Her mother, Susannah: Obituary for Susannah Goff, Trenton Times, October 31, 1939; obituary for Job Goff, Asbury Park Press, January 12, 1943.
Susan, by now sixteen: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, July 2016; interview with Al Panaro, August 2014.
she and Al wed in Florence: Marriage certificate, NJSA.
FIVE: THE SEARCH FOR SALLY
Robert and Jean Pfeffer: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 24, 1950, p. 3.
At first Marshall Thompson worked: Joseph S. Wells, “Sleuth Closes Books on Tireless Search,” Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 9.
He had been promoted to detective: “Marshall Thompson,” DVRBS.com, http://www.dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople MarsliallThompson.htm, accessed January 16, 2018.
“local pugilists”: Camden Courier-Post, January 2, 1928.
His musical ability was called out: Camden Courier-Post, November 3, 1939.
“quantity of sugar and cream”: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 9.
SIX: SEEDS OF COMPULSION
“Of the nineteen fictions”: Martin Amis, “Divine Levity,” Times Literary Supplement, December 23, 2011.
suggested a more likely culprit: Roper, Nabokov in America, p. 150.
“an ape in the Jardin des Plantes”: Nabokov, “On a Book Entitled Lolita,” Anchor Review, 1957 (subsequently reprinted in the Putnam edition of Lolita and every edition since).
Nabokov supplementing his writing income: Beam, The Feud, p. 16.
The short story includes: “A Nursery Tale,” reprinted in The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, pp. 161–172.
features the so-called demonic effect: “Lilith,” Poems and Problems (McGraw-Hill, 1969), reprinted in Selected Poems (Knopf, 2012), p. 84.
A paragraph in Dar: Nabokov, The Gift, pp. 176–177.
When Germany declared war: VNAY, p. 13.
“laid up with a severe attack”: Nabokov, “On a Book Entitled Lolita.”
“How can I come to terms”: Nabokov, The Enchanter, p. I.
“comparable to the one afforded”: Simon Karlinsky, “Nabokov’s Life and Lolita’s Death,” Washington Post, December 14, 1986.
As he later explained: Interview with Nabokov by Alfred Appel, Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 8 (1967).
Henry Lanz was a Stanford professor: VNAY, p. 33; Roper, Nabokov in America, p. 140.
Nabokov, however, denied it: Field, Nabokov: His Life in Part, p. 235.
SEVEN: FRANK, IN SHADOW
A likely birth date: La Salle’s age was reported variably between fifty-two and fifty-six in 1950; his death certificate lists his birth date as May 27, 1896, and his Social Security application in 1944 lists May 27, 1895.
Frank Patterson and Nora LaPlante: Names listed on 1943 prison intake form, NJSA. Different parental names, as well as hometowns, appeared on La Salle’s Social Security application.
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He said he served . . . prison has no record: Prison intake form, 1943; conversations with Greg Bognich, archivist, National Archives, Kansas City, KS.
every time he changed aliases: “Police Record of Girl’s Abductor,” Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. I.
It is as Fogg that a sharper picture: News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), August 3, 1937, p. 24.
He met her at a carnival: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1937, p. 3.
Which they did: Cecil County marriage license of Dorothy May Dare and Frank La Salle, July 31, 1937, obtained from the Maryland State Archives.
Dorothy’s father . . . was livid: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1937, p. 2.
“He told me the truth”: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1937.
The next morning, La Salle appeared: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1937.
La Salle was fined fifty dollars: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 1937, p. 2.
arrested La Salle on bigamy charges: Camden Courier-Post, March 22,1950, p. I.
Dorothy sued Frank for desertion: Ibid.
Three Camden police officers: Camden Courier-Post, March 25, 1950, p. 6.
The five girls: Names taken from Dorothy Dare’s divorce petition against Frank La Salle, La Salle v. La Salle, Superior Court of New Jersey, 151-246-W127-796 (1944).
Sergeant Wilkie swore out a warrant: Camden Courier-Post, March 25,1950, p. 6.
La Salle pleaded not guilty: Court docket, NJSA.
Dorothy and Madeline had moved: Interview with “Madeline La Salle,” August 2014; La Salle v. La Salle, Superior Court of New Jersey.
La Salle was paroled: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. I; prison intake form, 1950, NJSA; draft registration card, June 29, 1944; Social Security application, June 28,1944.
a forged $110 check: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950.
La Salle returned to Trenton State Prison: Ibid.; prison intake form, 1946, NJSA.
EIGHT: “A LONELY MOTHER WAITS”
She’d found work as a seamstress: Philadelphia Inquirer, December 10, 1948, p. I.
The case had taken on added urgency: March 17, 1949, indictment date mentioned in subsequent reports by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950.