Vera

by Stacy Schiff

  52 no respect: Interview with Dr. Bruce Cowan, March 14, 1997.

  53 “You just wait”: Diment, 34.

  54 poisoned her husband’s mind: Alice Colby-Hall to author, April 9, 1997. Interview with George Gibian, August 29, 1996. Leonard Blorenge, Chairman of French Literature and Language at Pnin’s Waindell College, distinguishes himself on two counts: “he disliked Literature and he had no French” (PNIN, 140). In the Nabokovs’ opinions, Fairbanks had no Russian. VN shivered to think what havoc Fairbanks’s graduates would wreak at the State Department (SL, 263). As late as 1958, he was writing the Cornell Daily Sun to protest the poor language instruction at the university.

  55 “the French gave her”: VéN corrections to Field, 1977.

  56 “used whoever was”: Boyd interview with VéN, December 12, 1982, Boyd archive. Blorenge brags that an instructor of French “is required to be only one lesson ahead of his students,” PNIN, 142.

  57 do his laundry: Interview with E. Levin, June 6, 1995.

  58 “Nabokov never scraped”: VéN corrections to Boyd’s Chapter 29, n.d. Interview with Harold Croghan, November 23, 1996.

  59 the eighteen-year-old English major: Robert Ruebman to author, “Snacking at the Nabokovs,” April 10, 1996.

  60 “Sonst noch was”: Ruebman to author, March 14, 1997.

  61 “If he had office hours”: Interview with Rona Schneider, September 1996.

  62 The few who delved: Interviews with Stanley Komaroff, April 29, 1996, Dick Wimmer, December 1, 1997.

  63 chief of a fire brigade: VN to Aldanov, February 2, 1951, Bakhm.

  64 “he worked for the wages”: VéN corrections to Field, 1977, ms. p. 271.

  65 essentially parked: Demorest, (Cornell) Arts and Sciences Newsletter, Spring 1983. VN lent a similar administrative limbo to Pnin, PNIN, 139.

  67 “a touch of almost”: Lange, Michigan Quarterly Review, October 1986, 482.

  68 He assured Keegan: Keegan recollections of VN, February 4, 1997.

  69 “It is fine”: Laughlin to VéN, November 30, 1948.

  70 “As you have probably”: VN to White, “Gardens and Parks” ms., LOC.

  71 “Avatar” to “Touche”: Interview with Keegan, January 15, 1998.

  72 “I wouldn’t want to see”: La Notte, April 26/7, 1962.

  73 “It is foolish”: VéN to HS, October 25, 1949, PC.

  74 “1) that he was very”: VéN to Zinaida Shakhovskoy, January 9, 1949, Amherst.

  75 “Volodya has still”: Natalie Nabokov to VéN, c. 1956.

  76 “Dear Véra and Volodya”: Grynberg to the Nabokovs, March 30, 1949.

  77 Wilson simply glided: Wilson to VN, July 15, 1949, Yale. The letter is addressed, “Dear Véra.”

  78 “I am afraid”: VN to Croghans, November 7, 1948.

  79 “unsolicited sounds”: VéN to Geoffrey Hughes, July 26, 1963.

  80 “husband and wife serfs”: Interviews with the Croghans, November 22, 1996, November 26, 1997.

  81 “slamming doors”: VN to Katharine and Andy [E. B.] White, October 25, 1950, Cornell.

  82 “There is nothing louder”: LO, 129.

  83 “I have no illusions”: VN to Katharine and E. B. White, October 25, 1950, Cornell.

  84 Jane Carlyle: See Rose, Parallel Lives, 247.

  85 fixing a flat tire: On a similar occasion on the 1949 trip with Buxbaum, VN excused himself at this juncture, setting off with his butterfly net.

  87 “What can I do?”: Interview with Bea McCloud, April 3, 1996.

  88 wooden cart of blocks: Edward C. Sampson to author, October 10, 1995. Interview with Frances Halperin, January 15, 1996.

  89 He confessed to: ANL, xliv.

  90 notebook in hand: Interviews with Shari Hathaway, Mrs. Orval French, May 3, 1996.

  91 “Oh yes, I know”: Interview with Milton Konvitz, August 9, 1996.

  92 “book clubs, bridge clubs”: “Conversation Piece,” STORIES, 586.

  93 “autobiographical thingamabob”: VN to Edward Weeks, September 9, 1948.

  94 she testified that working: White to Cass Canfield, November 29, 1948, HR.

  95 “pessimistically thought that”: Unpublished last chapter of SM, LOC.

  96 “so carefully mutilated”: VN to White, March 1948.

  97 a “beginning” writer: John Fischer to VN, February 17, 1949, HR.

  98 alarm bells: Handwritten note on John Fischer to VN, April 28, 1949, HR.

  99 “If anybody again ever”: Allen Tate to VN, November 6, 1946.

  100 all evidence points: DN felt his mother was the contract reader from the earliest days. Interview of December 1, 1997.

  101 familiar-seeming woman: Interview with HS, January 15, 1997.

  102 “amiable feelings”: VN to HS, May 22, 1949, PC.

  103 addressed to Véra: VN to White, November 27, 1949, SL, 95. In BEND, Krug addresses his dead wife. See also Johnson, Worlds in Regression, 97.

  104 shrugged it off: Interview with Appel, April 24, 1995.

  105 “the year I married”: CE, 183. And in that edition she was “my wife” sleeping in the next room, not yet the abstract “you.” CE, 222. Nor does she make appearances as frequently; she joins her husband on his mid-book lepping excursion (SM, 129) but does not do so in The New Yorker of June 12, 1948, or in Chapter VI of CE.

  106 Madame Chateaubriand: See Dan Hofstadter, The Love Affair as a Work of Art (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996), 83ff.

  107 Dorothy Wordsworth: Elizabeth Hardwick, Seduction and Betrayal (New York: Random House, 1974), 148.

  108 On reading the first half: Guadanini letter of July 27, 1959, probably to her mother, PC.

  109 “this exquisite”: Draft pages, SM, LOC. “That slow-motion, silent explosion of love” (SM, 297) is in “ ‘That in Aleppo Once …’ ” “that vast silent explosion,” STORIES, 557.

  110 “In the hush of pure”: SM, 309.

  111 “doing an amazing” and “Seen and approved”: VN to Hessen, April 17, 1950, PC. VN made the same report to Wilson, on the same date.

  112 “absolute lucidity”: Enclosed with VN to John Fischer, March 16, 1950, HR.

  113 “With one thing and”: VN to John Selby, Rinehart, January 17, 1951.

  114 the Hemingway translation: VN to Chekhov Publishing, November 10, 1954.

  115 “Why don’t you translate”: Alvin Toffler, Playboy, March, 1964, 44.

  116 “Could you not send”: VéN to Hessen, September 24, 1950, PC.

  117 “but the author found”: VéN to HS, January 1, 1951, PC.

  118 “Fluorescent Tears”: SM material, LOC.

  119 The two buried “v”s: VN to H. Levin, February 18, 1951. Also to Grynberg, December 11, 1950, Bakhm.

  120 “It Is Me”: VN to VéN, February 2, 1936, VNA.

  121 “He is not interested”: The New York Times, February 23, 1951. Nicholas Nabokov’s Old Friends and New Music had been published in January.

  122 “In the course of”: VN to Hessen, February, 1951, PC.

  123 “But you did”: Boyd interview with VéN, January 13, 1980, Boyd archive.

  124 “Incidentally, I glanced”: H. Levin to VN, March 5, 1951.

  125 “The icicles”: VN diary, February 3, 1951, VNA. (The line is in Russian.) Rarely have melting icicles been put to such imaginative—and, to White, such abstruse—effect.

  126 “dismal financial”: VN to White, January 28, 1950, SL, 96.

  127 precarious monetary state: Interview with DN, December 4, 1997.

  128 “Moreover, I am engaged”: VN to Pat Covici, Viking, November 12, 1951.

  129 “Get away” and “We are keeping”: Interview with Keegan, November 14, 1997.

  130 She did so again to “She was responsible”: SO, 20, 105. VéN could sound foggy on this subject, although she never cavilled with written accounts, even when she quibbled with all else on those pages. VN did not include his wife in the first account of the attempted ignition, written in 1956. (“On a Book Entitled Lolita,” ANL,
312.) There appear to have been multiple rescues; there was certainly no incinerator on Seneca Street.

  131 She feared that: “Sono stata io a salvare Lolita,” Epoca, November 22, 1959.

  132 “No, you’re not”: Field, 1986, 287. Also Arthur Mizener, Cornell Alumni News, September 1977, 56.

  133 one uncomfortable colleague: Interview with Alison Jolly, May 20, 1995.

  134 “Right now there’s”: VéN to HS, March 7, 1948, PC.

  135 “intellectual visa checkpoint”: Field, 1977, 34.

  136 “My wife, of course”: Radcliffe News, November 21, 1947.

  137 “Go to sleep”: Cannac, Russkaya Mysl, December 29, 1977.

  138 “We had no close”: VéN to Field, October 20, 1968.

  139 boasted regularly: Jean Bruneau to author, February 8, 1996; interview of July 27, 1996.

  140 “dreadfully drafty”: SO, 230.

  141 “One was a professor”: VéN to HS, May 18, 1951.

  142 “Remember, it is not”: Marc Szeftel, Cornell Alumni News, November 1980.

  143 “You know, Véra”: Interview with Elena Levin, June 16, 1995.

  144 “Véra always sides”: Wilson, Upstate (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971), 160–61. In Wilson’s The Fifties, Edel, ed., 425 the line reads: “Vera invariably sides with him [VN] and becomes slightly vindictive against people who argue with him.”

  145 Generally she had little: Interview with DN, December 5, 1997.

  146 a long, “newsy” letter: VéN to Lena Massalsky, February 10, 1959.

  147 “I would like to call”: L. Massalsky to VéN, January 29, 1959.

  148 one student thought: Edouard C. Emmet to author, March 6, 1997.

  149 “There are two great”: Interview with Anthony Winner, n.d. For additional memories of the Harvard year I am indebted to Robert J. Blattner, Edouard C. Emmet, John B. Forbes, Norman Friedman, Stephen P. Gibert, William Hedges, Herbert Howard, Saul Magram, Arthur Nebolsine, David Osnos, Ivan Pouchine, Pedro Sanjuan, Franklin D. Thompson, Gregory Troubetzkoy.

  150 did not universally charm: Interview with Franklin D. Thompson, February 1997. Similarly, Gregg, Massey, Winner.

  151 how he would have written: Interview with Irving Massey, March 2, 1997. VN later recalled with delight having dismembered the book before hundreds of students in Memorial Hall, SO, 103.

  152 Another disapproved: Interview with Winner.

  153 And was it truly necessary: Interview with Richard Gregg, March 4, 1997.

  154 revealing only late: Interview with Myron Laseron, March 15, 1997.

  155 “V. is giving grandiose”: VéN to Hessen, March 22, 1952, PC.

  156 “he is obviously taking”: VéN to HS, April 13, 1952.

  157 official enrollment: Harvard University archives.

  158 “a gutter cat”: Boyd interview with VéN, June 19, 1982, Boyd archive.

  159 “When V. reads and writes”: VéN to HS, April 13, 1952.

  160 “He was much thinner”: VéN to May Sarton, June 19, 1952.

  161 “But you must”: Interview with E. Emmet, May 9, 1997.

  162 made him repeat: Arthur Mizener, Cornell Alumni News, September 1977, 56.

  163 Langer was a punctual: Interview with DN, November 1, 1996.

  164 Reasons for attendance: VN to Wilson, January 16, 1952, NWL 268. Boyd interview with VéN, December 2, 1979, Boyd archive; Karpovich to VN, February 21, 1954.

  165 “the double-dotted”: VN to Bart Winer, Bollingen Press, 1963, LOC.

  166 “Now without Russian”: VN to Hessen, June 2, 1951, PC.

  167 As early as: Interview with Buxbaum, May 6, 1996.

  168 The Cornell recollections were a tidy echo chamber of overlapping memories, a comfort to the biographer but difficult to acknowledge properly. Where possible I have separated out individual quotes but am indebted as well to the following Cornellians for their descriptions of the Nabokovs’ routine: Laura T. Almquist, Arlene Alpert, Robert Bamberg, Leland Beck, Dr. Martin Blinder, Harry Bliss, Doris Nagel, Donald R. Brewer, Joe Buttino, Karin Cattarulla, Tanya Clyman, Peter Czap, William Elder Doll, Edwin Eigner, Marcia Elwitt, Elisavietta Ritchie Farnsworth, Stephen Fineman, Roberta Foy, Barton Friedman, Harry Gelman, Dorothy Gilbert, Roslyn Bakst Goldman, Ronald Goodison, Ted Heine, Renie Adler Hirsch, Steve Hochman, Richard Isaac, Isabel Kleigman, Peter Klem, Leighton Klevana, Stanley Komaroff, Edward L. Krawitt, M. Travis Lane, Dr. David C. Levin (of the “Gray Eagle” school), Carol Levine, Joan Macmillan (from whom comes the chalk dust allergy), Joseph F. Martino, Jr., Hilda Minkoff, Bill and Myra Orth, Joanna Russ, Kirk Sale, Rona Schneider, Robert Scholes, Marvin Shapiro, Roberta Silman, Penny Sindell (especially for the ventriloquism theory), Janet Sperber, Ron Sukenick, Bob Tapert, Robert G. Tischler, Frank Tretter, Darryl R. Turgeon, Marty Washburn, Ross Wetzsteon, Dick Wimmer, Marjorie and Stefan Winkler, Sandra Wittow (for the Seeing Eye dog hypothesis), Richard Wortman. See also Robert M. Adams, “Nabokov’s Show,” The New York Review of Books, December 18, 1980; Elizabeth Welt Trahan, “Laughter from the Dark: A Memory of Vladimir Nabokov,” The Antioch Review, Spring 1985; Appel, “Remembering Nabokov,” in Quennell, 11–33; Ross Wetzsteon, The Village Voice, November 30, 1967; Peter Klem, “Prejudices and Particularities,” Bloomsbury Review, January 1981.

  169 Her eyes: Interview with Charles Klaus, April 1996.

  170 She lingered: Interviews with Peter Czap, August 28, 1996, Ross Wetzsteon, August 10, 1995.

  171 administrative affairs: Interview with Tanya Clyman, July 1996.

  172 “Oh, yes, yes, yes”: Interview with Dorothy Gilbert, March 15, 1996.

  173 sophisticated diagrams: See Trahan, The Antioch Review, Spring 1985, 175–82.

  174 “rubberized tweed”: Interview with Klem, September 25, 1996. In the published version the outfit is “waterproof tweed,” LRL, 219.

  175 “This monogrammatic”: LRL, 175.

  176 the mask dropped: Interview with Robert Tischler, September 1, 1996.

  177 In some courses: Interview with Roslyn Bakst Goldman, August 22, 1996.

  178 proved more memorable: Interview with Wetzsteon, August 10, 1995.

  179 “quite a performance”: Interview with Henry Steck, November 27, 1995. Similarly, Peter Czap.

  180 as legendary: Wetzsteon, The Village Voice, November 30, 1967. Repr. in Appel and Newman, 240–46.

  181 “Everybody was fascinated”: Alison Bishop, in Gibian and Parker, eds., The Achievements of Vladimir Nabokov, 217.

  182 One student winced: Trahan, The Antioch Review, Spring 1985, 179. Similarly, interview with Anthony Winner, February 1996. (Winner observed the act at Harvard.)

  183 Gray Eagle: David C. Levin to author, October 10, 1995.

  184 the Countess: Interview with Keegan, January 12, 1997.

  185 “the most beautiful”: Interview with Alison Bishop Jolly, May 20, 1995.

  186 a countess: Interview with Marvin Shapiro, October 22, 1996. The German princess is from Joanna Russ, interview of May 6, 1996.

  187 “subtly endowed”: RLSK, 80.

  188 “But who is going”: Appel to VéN, December 20, 1984, VNA.

  189 geniality might register: Interview with Wetzsteon, August 10, 1995.

  190 Initially she waded: Interview with Keegan, November 14, 1997.

  191 adding a panegyric: Interview with Dick Wimmer, December 1, 1997.

  192 “I estimate that I shall”: VN to William Sale, October 26, 1953.

  193 “my assistant, Mrs. V”: VN to Diane Adams, June 14, 1954.

  194 complaining that he had: VN to Grynberg, November 6, 1953, LOC.

  195 He spent five days: Henry Steck to author, October 9, 1995. Interview with Steck, November 27, 1995.

  196 “What was the pattern”: M. Travis Lane to author, May 16, 1996. Interview with Lane, July 25, 1996.

  197 “We thought you”: Interview with Russ, May 6, 1996.

  198 “I have written” to “some difficulty”: Interview with Dorothy Gilbert, March 29, 1996.


  199 “he leaned over”: Interview with Steve Katz, October 24, 1996. See also Katz, Contemporary Authors Autobiography, vol. 14, 165–66.

  200 “way, way over”: Franklin D. Thompson to author, March 3, 1997.

  201 “I write you while”: VN to Hessen, October 22, 1956, PC.

  202 beneath his dignity: Interview with Carol Levine.

  203 He grumbled: VN to Hessen, May 3, 1957, PC.

  204 “I am too little”: LRL, 98

  205 “a woman full of”: Lecture drafts. The words “Dostoyevsky was proclaimed a great writer mainly by philosophers or philosophizing critics whose opinions on literature should never be quite trusted” were, among others, hers.

  206 “not literature but”: Osip Mandelstam, 114.

  207 “He savored words”: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to author, September 3, 1996.

  208 appeared superficial: Interview with Charles Klaus. Roberta Silman (interview of May 6, 1996) was discouraged from taking the course. Similarly, Rona Schneider, Marcia Elwitt. Interviews with Kirk Sale, October 21, 1996; Doug Fowler, August 1996; Edwin Eigner, July 31, 1998.

  209 how to read: Some students knew this. interview with Myra Orth, October 29, 1996. Similarly, Dr.

  210 Doris Nagel.

  211 “on willingness for”: LRL, 147.

  212 lit up a cigarette: Interview with Matthew J. Bruccoli, April 18, 1995.

  213 “as good a piece”: VéN copy of Lange, Michigan Quarterly Review, October 1986, 482, VNA.

  214 he was unable: Interview with Gold, June 22, 1995.

  215 turning on a light: Interview with Wimmer.

  216 nervous little dance: Interview with Donald R. Brewer, January 25, 1998. Stephen Fineman remembered VN appealing to VéN to work her magic on the dais light, which resisted him. Interview of September 20, 1998. To another student he explained that all went technologically awry if he turned on a television himself. Interview with Nagel.

  217 “Of course you remember”: Interview with Robert Ruebman, April 9, 1996. James McConkey to author, August 12, 1996.

  218 amphitheater lights: Appel, “Remembering Nabokov,” Quennell, 18.

  219 “We did not know”: Interview with Robert Tischler, September 1, 1996.

  220 “Véra Nabokov was”: Roberta Silman, letter to editor, The Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1977, 2.

  221 The Subnormal Adolescent Girl: LO cards, LOC.