Vera

by Stacy Schiff

  222 “ruffled by a too robust”: LATH, 234.

  223 pushed the envelope: Schimmel to author, November 28, 1996.

  224 an attractive favorite student: Interview with Nagel.

  225 the fugitive information: Interview with Stephen Jan Parker, November 13, 1996.

  226 When his classes were: Interview with Ted Heine, January 23, 1996.

  227 “No, Volodya” to “absolutely right”: Interview with Robert C. Howes, May 5, 1997.

  228 intellectual partner: Interview with Dr. Zygmunt M. Tomkiewicz, August 27, 1996.

  229 to jot it down: Trahan, 179. Appel, in Quennell, 17.

  230 One student looked: Interview with Robert Howes. Also, Grynberg to VN, December 20, 1948.

  231 tribute to his delivery: Interviews with Michaël Rubenstein, December 8, 1997, Klem.

  232 laughing so hard: Interview with Wetzsteon. Hughes, interview text, 47.

  233 switched to the page: Interview with Joanna Russ.

  234 “rabbits out of textual”: Robert M. Adams, “Nabokov’s Show,” The New York Review of Books, December 18, 1980, 61–63.

  235 The pink shirt: Klem, “Prejudices and Particularities,” The Bloomsbury Review, January 1981. Similarly, interview with Joseph F. Martino, Jr., September 18, 1998. Klem interview.

  236 Did he dress: Interview with Russ.

  237 Nabokov’s apparel: Schimmel to author, November 28, 1996. Similarly, Gould P. Colman to author (via Phil Macrae), September 12, 1996. Interview with Gregory Troubetzkoy (Harvard), February 1997.

  238 “Once she smiled”: Klem, Bloomsbury Review.

  239 three reasons why: Interview with DN, October 29, 1996.

  240 “very straight, smooth-haired”: “Bachmann,” STORIES, 118.

  241 “It was as if”: Interview with Dr. Martin Blinder, July 1996.

  242 illiterate bootstraps: Interview with Blinder.

  243 the most visible: Many testified to VN’s having been supremely conscious of VéN’s presence. Interview with E. Levin, October 7, 1996; similarly, Bruccoli, Carol Levine.

  244 “Who is Sirin” to “his work”: Interview with Tanya Clyman.

  245 Harvard students: Interview with Pedro Sanjuan, April 15, 1996. Also Trahan, 181.

  246 eyes lit up: Interview with Isabel Kleigman, July 27, 1996.

  247 “Ladies and gentlemen”: Interview with Kleigman, April 15, 1996.

  248 “Do you have any”: Interview with Appel, August 28, 1996.

  249 “But one is inclined”: Unpublished chapter of SM, LOC. See also PF, 28.

  250 an oil well: VéN to Joan Daly, September 22, 1971, PW.

  251 uneasy in the classroom: Interviews with Keegan, Richard Gregg, March 4, 1997. See also Harry Levin in Alexandrov, Garland Companion, 228.

  252 Nabokov regularly dreamed: VéN to Darryl R. Turgeon, March 13, 1966.

  253 “likes to be able”: Field, 1977, 247. “Nabokov likes to be able”: Viking corrections to Field, 411, VNA. As David Slavitt noted when he interviewed him for Newsweek in 1962, VN looked to VéN repeatedly as he spoke. To Slavitt the reason seemed clear: “It was as if even if I weren’t getting some of these jokes, she was.” Interview with Slavitt, August 14, 1998.

  254 “Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov”: VéN to Tischler, February 21, 1967.

  255 “being destroyed by emperors”: LRL, 11.

  256 “radiant presence”: LL, 97.

  257 “cannot be discarded”: LRL, 43; GOGOL, 119.

  263 as far as can be ascertained: Interview with DN, December 13, 1997.

  6 NABOKOV 102

  1 “No one ever had to”: Interview with Elena Levin, June 6, 1995.

  2 “with a certain deadliness”: Wilson, Upstate, 160. In The Fifties, 426, Wilson used the phrase to describe the tone in which VéN addressed the two men of letters giggling helplessly over Histoire d’O, which Wilson had brought along for VN.

  3 intrusive moonlight: Interviews with Herbert and Jane Wiegandt, November 21, 1997; Lester Eastman, November 21, 1997.

  4 “We never used”: VN to Wiegandt, February 13, 1953.

  5 “Goethe” to “ever written”: Interview with Jenni Moulton, March 2, 1997.

  6 how he could possibly: Interview with Alain Seznec, January 28, 1998.

  7 “To your knowledge” to “Chateaubriand”: Demorest, Arts and Sciences 4, no. 2 (Spring 1983). “You know, there are no German translations of world literature of any value whatever,” VN challenged another colleague, needless to say a German-born literature professor. See Lange, Michigan Quarterly Review, October 1986, 489.

  8 “irritate the intelligent”: VN to Shakhovskoy, May 23, 1935, LOC.

  9 Not only was Auden: Interview with James McConkey.

  10 Jane Austen: Daiches, in L’Arc 24, 65–66.

  11 “Spousal censorship”: Carl R. Proffer, The Widows of Russia, 70.

  12 “and therefore was amusing”: VéN diary.

  13 counseled a little mercy: Interview with Dick Wimmer, December 1, 1997.

  14 the home botany exam: Interview with Dmitri Ledkovsky, July 1996.

  15 censoring the censoring: Willa Petschek, The Observer (London), May 30, 1976.

  16 London theatre: RLSK, 85

  17 “ ‘Volodyal’ ”: Appel, in Quennell, 20. Similarly, Roberta Silman.

  18 “teetered always”: Adams, The New York Review of Books, December 18, 1980. “For all of his familiarity with American mores, he often misread American manners,” concluded another colleague. Interview with M. H. Abrams, October 18, 1998.

  19 “I am sorry to disappoint”: VéN to Howard S. Cresswell, March 20, 1953.

  20 “show off her family”: VéN to Lena Massalsky, August 28, 1950, Massalsky family archive.

  21 in speaking with Sonia: L. Massalsky to VéN, September 9, 1950.

  22 “in another selfless”: Szeftel November 8, 1971, journal entry, cited in Pniniad, 128.

  23 “Don’t bother hiring him”: Interview with Ruth Schorer, August 25, 1996.

  24 “Well all right”: Interview with Peter Kahn, August 29, 1996.

  25 It was felt: Interviews with Frances Lange, September 12, 1996, Kitty Szeftel, August 15, 1996. Also Elena Levin.

  26 respected but not universally liked: Interviews with Silman, Elwitt, Fowler, Kahn. Richard L. Leed to author, April 8, 1997; Steck to author, November 27, 1995.

  27 shared Sonia’s low opinion: VN to Shakhovskoy, c. 1938, LOC.

  28 tucked rather inaccessibly: See Robert M. Adams, The New York Review of Books, January 30, 1992.

  29 “Our only airline”: VéN to Peter de Peterson, May 25, 1958.

  30 end in his expulsion: Bruneau to author, February 8, 1996.

  31 playacting: Schimmel to author, November 1, 1996.

  32 As for American schools: VéN to L. Massalsky, May 15, 1950, Massalsky family archive.

  33 “I think Vera”: Blanche Peltenburg to VéN, November 1955.

  34 “prosperous usurers”: See Frederic, The New Exodus, 19. In a letter to the Cornell Daily Sun, October 20, 1958, 4, VN insisted he was “strictly a Goldwin Smith man.”

  35 “lyrical plaintiveness”: VN to Grynberg, December 16, 1944, Bakhm. He was speaking in particular, and privately, of Wilson. Earlier it had been “the spiritual tempest, the pulsing, the shining, dancing savagery, that evil and tenderness that drive us to God knows what heavens and depths.” VN in Rul, October 28, 1921.

  36 “Amazing Americans!”: VéN diary, VNA.

  37 “It’s dangerous”: Interview with Keegan, January 15, 1998.

  38 Vladimir never voted: Boyd interview with VéN, September 3, 1982, Boyd archive.

  39 “the two McSenators” to “Dewey”: VéN to the Cornell Daily Sun, December 12, 1952.

  40 “She also says”: VN diary entry, January 14, 1951, VNA.

  41 “We both loved”: VN to Katharine White, January 4, 1953.

  42 saw only propaganda: Alice Colby-Hall to author, April 9, 1997.

  43 Fairbanks did not speak
: VéN copy of Field, 1977, VNA.

  44 impassioned defense: Interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., October 9, 1996.

  45 “I suppose that McCarthy”: VéN to Mark Vishniak, February 19, 1955, Hoover.

  46 firm measures were the only: VéN to Berkman, October 25, 1962.

  47 “After all”: VéN to Vishniak, February 19, 1955, Hoover.

  48 He reminded her that: Vishniak to VéN, February 23, 1955, VNA.

  49 “I continue to consider” and “Enough”: VéN to Vishniak, February 27, 1955, Hoover.

  50 principle informed all: VéN to Anna Feigin, February 14, 1963. Also, Boyd interview with VéN, March 16, 1982, Boyd archive; Boyd to author, June 14, 1997.

  51 tore her check: Interview with DN, November 12, 1997.

  52 “We spent two months”: VéN to HS, March 29, 1953.

  53 printsipialnost: cited in Abram Tertz cited in Seltzer, “Simon Dubnow: A Critical Biography of His Early Years,” 60.

  54 cut-up liver: May Sarton, The Fur Person (New York: Norton, 1978), 7–9.

  55 “on the verge”: VN to Wilson, May 3, 1953, NWL, 280.

  56 a fat rattlesnake: VéN to Hessen, May 23, 1953, PC. Boyd interview with VéN, February 2, 1982, Boyd archive. See also, Levy, The New York Times Magazine, October 31, 1971, 20–41.

  57 “St. George-Vladimir”: VéN to Rosemary Mizener, May 12, 1953.

  58 “Moreover, Vladimir”: VéN to Alice James, May 17, 1953.

  59 “mellow academic townlet”: LO, 179.

  60 far preferred the green: VéN to Karpovich, June 17, 1953, Bakhm.

  61 on Lance and Dmitri: In her letter to HS, February 23, 1952, PC, VéN noted that the old Bokes’

  62 only son shares some of DN’s idiosyncrasies. DN is “Lance” in VN to Aldanov, 1940 from Palo Alto, Bakhm.

  63 “of melting light”: “Lance,” STORIES, 631.

  64 offshore racing: His first boat was called Vera I, the second Vera II. “You could have called it ‘Lolita,’ ” commented VN wistfully, lips pursed. Interview with DN, September 30, 1997.

  65 “A parent’s job”: VéN to HS, July 16, 1966.

  66 “We like it much”: VéN to HS, July 31, 1953.

  67 horror: Interview with Boyd, November 23, 1996.

  68 no snakes in the neighborhood: VéN to HS, May 19, 1960.

  69 “She liked guns”: Interview with DN, February 10, 1996.

  70 “My wife has some”: VN to Alexander B. Klots, May 16, 1949. D. Barton Johnson sent on this letter.

  71 “For protection while”: Tompkins County Courthouse records.

  72 After the meal: Interviews with Jean-Jacques Demorest, Joseph Mazzeo, January 7, 1997. Bayonet Bob Ruebman served as general firearms consultant. I had more questions for him than I thought I would.

  73 Nestled in the glove: Clarke, Esquire, July 1975.

  74 a viewing of the gun and “She really had”: Interviews with Jason Epstein, September 24, 1996, and May 11, 1998. Interview with Barbara Epstein, September 17, 1996.

  75 wholly unsurprised: Interview with Elena Levin, January 12, 1998.

  76 “Véra, show him”: Interview with Saul Steinberg, January 17, 1996.

  77 ripe with symbolism: Steinberg was not the only one; Humbert Humbert, too, evokes a comparison between a woman’s purse and her genitals, LO, 62. See also LO, 216, for the original anti-Freudian’s take on such symbolism.

  78 Anna Karenina’s handbag: Cornell Magazine, July-August 1997.

  79 “You will perhaps”: VéN to Colette Duhamel, La Table Ronde, November 18, 1953.

  80 December 1953: Nabokov slipped slightly in his afterword, “On a Book Entitled Lolita.” He remembered that he “finished copying the thing out in longhand in the spring of 1954, and at once began casting around for a publisher.” The search for a publisher continued through that year, when revisions continued, but an early typescript had been ready as of December 1953.

  81 a final draft: VN wrote his sister of the translation “Véra and I made of Conclusive Evidence.” VN to HS, September 29, 1953, PC.

  82 “V. asks me to jot”: VéN to the Hessens, December 6, 1953, PC.

  83 “that his incognito be”: VéN to White, December 23, 1953, SL, 142–43.

  84 “a time bomb”: VN to Laughlin, February 3, 1954, SL, 144.

  85 “In an atmosphere of”: VN to Wilson, June 20, 1953, NWL, 282.

  86 five granddaughters: White read the novel only in March 1957, while one of the “potential nymphets” was visiting. It made her shudder. (White to VN, March 25, 1957, BMC.) She did not read the manuscript when VéN delivered it for two reasons: She was given only the weekend to do so, during which she was entertaining; she did not feel she could in good faith conceal the material from Shawn. In light of Covici’s opinion that the book was pornographic, she had already warned VéN that she did not feel qualified to offer an opinion on U.S. publication as she was personally unacquainted with the laws governing obscenity. Nor did she feel comfortable guaranteeing VN total anonymity, at home or at the office. Note to files, White archive; White to VN, February 1, 1954, BMC.

  87 “I can’t believe”: VéN to HS, February 28, 1957.

  88 “Would we like”: VN to White, April 4, 1957, SL, 215.

  89 “unpleasantness” and “In any case”: VéN to HS, November 12, 1955, PC. The Nabokovs were slow to send copies of LO to both HS and Kirill Nabokov, VN’s brother. Neither knew even the name of the volume’s publisher in January of 1956; both were clamoring to read the book. As for Sikorski’s son, HS reassured VéN that she had nothing to fear: His English was not yet good enough. HS to VéN, January 13, 1956, Cornell.

  90 “reality always lies” and “in her mind”: Proffer, Widows of Russia, 47.

  91 “V is afraid that Lolita”: VéN to HS, January 12, 1956.

  92 “I am very fond”: VéN addition to VN to Wilson, March 8, 1946, NWL, 165.

  93 had not yet met him: Richard Wilbur to author, February 20, 1998.

  94 left her indifferent: VéN to A. Barbetti, May 13, 1947.

  95 “But it is a great”: VéN to HS, January 12, 1956.

  96 “legally binding”: VN to Pat Covici, October 14, 1952.

  97 “up to his chin”: VéN to Wilson, April 24, 1955, NWL, 293.

  98 “the novel about H.H.”: VéN to Wallace Brockway, June 5, 1954.

  99 “My husband has”: VéN to Doussia Ergaz, Clarouin Agency, August 6, 1954.

  100 even more alarmed: VéN to HS, August 5, 1954.

  101 “fiasco”: VN to Wilson, July 30, 1954, NWL, 285.

  102 “never found” to “try and stay”: VéN to Gordon Lacy, August 23, 1954.

  103 “a second-rate”: VéN to Laughlin, July 20, 1954. Similarly, to HS, August 5, 1954.

  104 “is a dismal hole”: VN to Wilson, July 30, 1954, NWL, 285.

  105 “She’s a dreadful”: Interview with Otto Pitcher, August 29, 1995.

  106 “hurtling in pursuit”: DN to Boyd, August 20, 1987, VNA.

  107 “How can you say”: Interview with DN, January 28, 1998.

  108 Mount Sinai Hospital: Interview with Mrs. Arthur Dallos, February 6, 1998. VN diary.

  109 “Keep track” to “these thoughts”: VéN to Lisbet Thompson, October 1, 1961.

  110 black magic: VéN to HS, January 10, 1949.

  111 liver trouble: Among others, VN to H. Levin, September 5, 1954, Houghton Library.

  112 “in a pitiful state”: VN to Wilson, September 5, 1954, NWL, 287.

  113 Roger Straus: Straus remembers the manuscript having come to him directly from Wilson, although the correspondence suggests otherwise. Interview with Roger W. Straus, January 30, 1998.

  114 “in his right mind” and “from various”: Straus to VN, November 11, 1954. See also, Straus letter to the editor, The New York Times Book Review, July 3, 1988.

  115 He admitted: Straus to VéN, November 29, 1954.

  116 “The poor darling”: Interview with Bowden Broadwater, September 1996.

&nbs
p; 117 “It’s repulsive”: Interview with Jason Epstein, May 11, 1998.

  118 “Did you read his”: Wilson to Grynberg, September 28, 1955, LOC.

  119 Elena Levin suspected, and the Levins’ reading: Interviews with Elena Levin, June 6, 1995, February 20, 1998. The Levins’ daughter was born in 1941; Helen Wilson in 1948.

  120 a Dorothy Parker: Diment was the first to note the coincidence, Pniniad, 60–61.

  121 “a yelp”: VN to Maxwell, August 26, 1955.

  122 firmly reassured him: White to VN, August 31, 1955.

  123 failed tribute to Fanny: Wilson to Louise Bogan, March 22, 1946, Letters on Literature and Politics, 437. Wilson says the same: Field, 1986, 300.

  124 “That the passion” to “Without suggesting”: Epstein reader’s report, PC.

  125 “The four American”: LO, 313.

  126 Nabokov later claimed: LO, 314. There is no evidence whatever for the claim.

  127 “If only everything”: VéN to HS, January 29, 1955.

  128 “Just think of all”: VéN to Berkman, September 7, 1956.

  129 “I suppose it will”: VN to Wilson, February 19, 1955, Yale.

  130 “one would not dare”: Ergaz to VN, August 24, 1954, Glenn Horowitz collection.

  131 Even the Karpoviches: Karpovich to Anna Feigin, January 26, 1955.

  132 “I do have”: VN to Chekhov Publishing, May 6, 1952.

  133 The agent of providence: See John de St. Jorre’s delightful Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and Its Writers.

  134 “I felt I had” to “respectable”: Maurice Girodias, Unejournéesur la terre, Vol. II, Lesjardins d’éros, 294. The first volume of the memoir (Une journée sur la terre, Vol. I, L’Arrivée) appeared in different form as The Frog Prince (New York: Crown, 1980). Also unpublished Girodias memoir pages, Gelfman Girodias, “Pornologist on Mt. Olympus,” Playboy, April 1961.

  135 second and third readers: Interviews with Muffie Wainhouse, January 29, 1998; Miriam Worms, June 18, 1996; Eric Kahane, June 12, 1996.

  136 “If the publisher”: VN to Ergaz, May 6, 1955. Having agreed to attach his name to the work, VN got cold feet several weeks later, as the contract was negotiated. “J’aurais, comme je vous le disais, certainement préféré de publier sous mon nom de plume. N’accordez donc l’usage de mon nom que si l’éditeur en fait une condition absolue,” he advised Ergaz on May 24. The matter was settled when Girodias advised that he held absolutely to VN’s signing the work with his own name.