Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977
Page 10
Ithaca, N.Y.
20 March 1950
Dear Mrs. White,
I am returning the tawny paper with "The Room".1 Have corrected two misprints. I want to tell you again how grateful I am to the New Yorker for their generosity. I hope you can use the poem soon since Mr. Churchill is getting on in years and any accident or sickness that might happen to him would perhaps interfere with the publication of my good-natured dig.
Incidentally, I tried strophe 9 on two friends of mine and really there does not seem any possibility of ambiguity whatsoever, as to the meaning of the last two words.2
We had a marvellous time at the New Yorker party, but it was a terrible disappointment that you were not there. Véra and I hope that you are making a speedy recovery.
You will soon get two stories, "Exile" and "Gardens and Parks".3 I wonder if you have had an opportunity to glance at Amy Kelly's charming and scholarly book, "Eleanor and the Four Kings"?41 understand it was sent to your office.
Best regards to your husband.
Cordially yours,
TO: KATHARINE A. WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
24 March 1950
Dear Katharine,
I hope you will be quite well by the time this reaches you. But just in case you are still resting I am sending a duplicate of this letter to your home address while enclosing the stories with the original addressed to you at the New Yorker office.
I have followed your example and am in bed with a temperature above 102°. No bronchitis but grippe with me is invariably accompanied by the hideous pain of intercostal neuralgia. However, I have managed to put the finishing touches to two pieces, "Exile"1 and "Gardens and Parks",2 which constitute Chapters XV and XVI of my book. Its title will be "Conclusive Evidence". Chapter XIV will be a new venture, a kind of essay on women and love. And Chapter XVII will be a critical survey of the whole book.
To be quite frank in regard to the following matter: Sirin, the writer I detachedly describe in one passage, is I; it is the nom-de-guerre under which I used to write in Russian and it seemed to me that this was the most unobtrusive way to render an important period in my life, especially since the name "Sirin" conveys absolutely nothing to American readers.
When coming to the last pages of the piece "Exile", please remember that the frontispiece to the first edition of "Alice in the Looking Glass" carries a very subtle and difficult chess problem, and I would not like to think that New Yorker readers could be more bewildered by my chess problem (which occupies only a few lines) than Dodgson's little readers.
Véra and I send our very best greetings to you and Andy.
Sincerely yours,
TO: JAMES LAUGHLIN
CC, 1 p.
802 E. Seneca Street
Ithaca, N.Y.
27 April 1950
Dear Laughlin,
I have been sick for more than a month and only now am beginning to get back to normal conditions. One of my first concerns is that unfinished business of the LAUGHTER IN THE DARK reprint. Quite independently of whether or not the deal is a profitable one for you and me, it is essential for me to keep my records straight, and this I cannot do unless I know the exact text of your contract with the New American Library. It is very important for me, so please give it your attention. Please have a copy of the agreement sent to me without further delay. I am at a loss to understand why you have not done it before. After all, literature is not only fun, it is also business.
I thought THE SHELTERING SKY an utterly ridiculous performance, devoid of talent.1 You ought to have had the manuscript checked by a cultured Arab. Thanks all the same for sending me those books. I hope you don't mind this frank expression of my opinion.
Sincerely yours,
TO: JOHN FISCHER
CC, 1 p.
802 E. Seneca Street
Ithaca, N.Y.
9 May 1950
Dear Mr. Fischer,
I shall not pretend that I am not disappointed by your decision.1 Some of the reasons that made me wish for an early publication I have explained in my last letter. There were others that it would take too long to explain in writing. I leave them unsaid for I realize that it is now too late for you to change your decision.
I hope this does not signify that you are losing interest in my book. I am enclosing herewith a piece of it which perhaps Harper's Magazine would care to purchase. Please let me have your reaction as soon as you conveniently can as I am anxious to place this piece before I go away for the summer.
There is also another question which I would like to discuss with you. As you surely know, before coming to this country and becoming an American writer, I have published a number of novels in Russian. Two of these have been translated into English and published by John Long (London), and one of these two was published by Bobbs-Merrill more than ten years ago and recently reissued by the New American Library ("Laughter in the Dark"). Besides the English translation there have been translations of this and others of my novels into French, German, Swedish and Czech, and recently also in Italian, Spanish and Dutch.
The second2 of the two that were published in England by Long before the last war, as well as a couple of others, should, I think, be sometime published in this country, preferably within a few years. I never raised this question before with any publisher, with the exception of New Directions some ten years ago.... Please let me know whether your firm could be interested in such a project. I have a letter from a firstrate agent who seems to be interested in this matter but before dealing with him I would like to hear from you.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: DR. JOSEPH BEQUAERT1
CC, 2 pp.
802 E. Seneca Street
Ithaca, N.Y.
6th July 1950
Dear Bequaert,
I am sending you a little memorandum that may be useful to Dr. McDunnough when he arrives. As you know, a serious illness in the spring of 1948 prevented me from winding up my lepidopterological affairs to my satisfaction before I left for Ithaca. I have now looked through my correspondence and notebooks and have jotted down the following items for your and McDunnough's information.
1. I am responsible for the arrangement of the Nearctic butterflies. Very possibly Dr. McDunnough will disagree with some of my taxonomic ideas but at least the series are in good order now. It was not an easy job since the specimens were scattered all over the place. I also classified most the Palearctic butterflies of the Weeks collection which were originally in glassless trays when I first examined the collection in 1941–42. As you also know, I was never officially curator of the Lepidoptera, and what I did in that line was solely in appreciation of Barbour's sympathy and generosity in giving me the possibility to indulge in research work dealing with certain Lycaenids, which resulted in various papers published in "Psyche", "The Entomologist" and the "MCZ Bulletin".
2. A chest near the bookcase contains numerous vials with male genitalia (mainly Lycaenids) coated with glycerine in a mixture of alcohol and water. I had hoped to arrange them more permanently (using the jar system, as I do not believe in slides for these things) but I did not have the time to do so before my departure. The numbers affixed to these vials correspond to numbers on yellow labels affixed to Lycaenids in the collection. Most of them refer to the Lycaeides (the "scudderi-melissa" group) that is temporarily set apart with "do-not-disturb" notes (opposite the Nearctic collection) since there are still specimens that I have to return to my correspondents. The numbers in pencil on white labels affixed to the butterflies refer to my files where each specimen has a card of its own, and should not be confused with the aforesaid numbers on yellow labels referring to the vials with genitalia. I shall be in Boston sometime in September and shall finish sorting out the specimens to be returned. The Frank Chermock batch is ready but he does not answer my letters and I do not know where to send it to him (it contains a holotype-allotype pair among other valuable things).
3. Some Lycaenids occurring in North America, but really belonging to the Neotropical group, will be found together with specimens of the latter in one of the cabinets (nearest to the windows) containing West-Indian butterflies. I placed them there temporarily while working on the Neotropical Plebejinae.
4. Also temporarily, for safety's sake, while boxes were continuously opened and handled, I removed Scudder's Lycaenidae specimens, among which there are a few types, to the "green" cabinet and attached large labels "Scudder's collection" to the cases.
5. The following material had been loaned through me and I do not know if it has been returned since I left (there are notes pinned in the corresponding empty spots in the cases):
To Avinov, Carnegie Museum, 15-VI-1943, 6 females of Phoebis argante race from Cuba.
To Franklin Chermock, 18-IV-1945, a specimen of Colias occidentalis Scud.
To W.P. Comstock, A.M.N.H., 7-IX-1946, nine specimens of Anaea and, in 1945, some sixty or more Heliconius charithonius (you should have the list, if I remember correctly).
To R.M. Fox, Carnegie Museum, 25-IX-1946, about 1900 specimens of Ithomine (his count, 1878, is short of ours by 32).
To A.B. Klots, College of the City of New York, Dep. of Biology, 22-IV-1948, 1 Boloria freija.
6. I have given to the MCZ all the abundant lepidopterological material spread and incorporated in the Nearctic section, that I collected in 1943 and 1947 in Utah and Colorado besides a smaller collection I made in various Eastern localities.
7. I have been also responsible for obtaining specimens for the Museum from various correspondents of mine (you have the list of these accessions) such as Stallings, Grey, Eff and many others.
There are some other, minor, matters but they can wait until I see you in the fall.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
TO: JOHN FISCHER
CC, 1 p.
802 East Seneca Street
Ithaca, N.Y.
20 July 1950
Dear Mr. Fischer,
Thanks for your two kind letters. Am enclosing the copy. Good, accurate work on the part of the copy editor.
Re the subtitle. The addition "of a vanished era" will not do at all. The book is not about an era, but about a person, and in that sense the past cannot be said to have "vanished". If you have any other suggestions for a subtitle, let me know. I am completely out of mental funds.
The jacket copy is, as you say, not a success. I object strongly to the following points: 1. Sitwell, a ridiculous mediocrity, does not belong here.1 2. The paragraph stressing the "immeasurable wealth"2 etc. is impossible—sets my teeth on edge. 3. Nabokov does not tell about the assassination of his father with "good humored detachment". 4. The sentence about the ironically appropriate butterflies is too silly for words.3 5. The quotation from Proust is bad English and anyway irrelevant.4
Re the "style sheet". The name Colette has one "1".
Here are some notes relating to the copy-edited typescript: p. 14, premonitary (not.....tory); p. 33, overboard; pp. 43, 46 and 55, schoolroom; pp. 81 and 89, yes, quite right, "moth" should not be capitalized; p. no, yes, "confront"; p. 125, bonnet; pp. 159 and 172, Alexandr (but Alexandre on p. 113 and 162); p. 170, reinstate gaffe; p. 176, yes—idiotic; p. 186, nonexistant; p. 187, buttoned sweater etc.; p. 191, had possessed; p. 191, "Claws" is intentional and so is "Butcher" in the same sentence; p. 200, sung is o.k.; p. 299, yes, 1916–1900 B.C.—excellent idea; p. 21 x, reinstate catacumbal.
I am enclosing with this letter a last chapter (XVI) which I find difficult to decide whether to add or not to my book.5 I am sending it to you mainly because it contains, among other matter, all that is necessary to say in the blurb. The "reviewer" and "Miss Braun" are of course fictitious people, and there is no such book as "When Lilacs Last". If this chapter be added, then the parenthetic "Bishop to C2" on p. 219 should of course be deleted. I like this chapter XVI well enough but for some reasons I still hesitate to include it. However, as I say, your blurbist is free to fish out whatever he finds suitable. I would suggest making the blurb as prim and prosaic as possible: after all the reader will find out all about the author in the book itself.
Sincerely yours,
TO: KATHARINE A. WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
23 July 1950
Dear Katharine,
Just a word of summer greetings. We hope you are well, all three of you, and enjoying vacation. Have heard from the Bishops that you were in Nova Scotia.
I am engrossed in the preparation of a new course. Have finished annotating "Bleak House" and "Mansfield Park" and now shall have to translate—at least in parts—"Madame Bovary": what there is in this line is a mess. In connection with "Mansfield Park" I have been reading Walter Scott, Cowper, Shak.'s "Henry VIII" and Inchbald-Kotzebue's "Lovers' Vows". Am anticipating my students' surprise when I tell them that they will have to read all that too in order to appreciate Jane. My plan is to teach my 150 students to read books, not just to get away with a "general" idea and a vague hash of "influences", "background", "human interest" and so forth. But this means work.1
We shall probably spend all summer here. Our boy is in Evanston, attending a five-week course in Debating given by Northwestern to a selected group of highschoolers. He enjoys it.
Did I tell you that my university piece2 will be in Harper's Magazine? The MS of the book went to Harpers, and I am now feeling as flat and empty as a young mother.
My wife joins me in sending you and yours our best regards.
TO: KATHARINE A. WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
November 13 [1950]
Dear Katharine,
I want to add to Véra's letter that I have found some extraordinary things, plays and articles, in the Soviet periodical "Zvezda" for 1949 that cast a brilliant and terrible light on Soviet-American relations. Would you like me to write a piece of 4000–5000 words on the subject? It would contain samples of the Soviet notion of the American way of life culled from some plays and a remarkable warning, in August 1949!—of their Korean policy. I could have the article ready within a month's time. It might fit either into the body of the New Yorker or into its book-reviewing head.
TO: JOHN FISCHER
CC, 1 p.
802 East Seneca Street
Ithaca, N.Y.
November 14, 1950
Dear Mr. Fischer,
Here are a few questions I would like to discuss:
Time is passing, and I still have not seen either blurb, jacket or binding. Who is designing the jacket? I trust there is no "Russian" stuff—churches, pagodas, samovars—being considered. I am raising this question only because I have had something of the sort inflicted upon me by an English publisher.
What are you doing in the way of publicity? Santa Claus is putting on his jackboots. When are you sending out that announcement? Incidentally, I hope there has not been a misunderstanding—if I mentioned the Russian-language publications in New York, it was only because I took for granted that you would take care of the American ones anyway. The bulk of my readers is American, not Russian.
Perhaps I have mentioned the following matter before. Have you tried to get any of the so-called "book clubs" interested in CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE? I am told one can make a bit of money that way.
I hope that Harper's Magazine will publish my story in its December issue, thus making some publicity for the book before Christmas.
Thank you for sending a set of proofs to Bonnier's.
About two months ago I wrote to the French film company by registered mail. The letter was not returned but no answer came. You might be luckier. The name of the firm is "SEDIF", in case you care to write them. The "adresse provisoire" (the only one I have) is 65–67, Champs-Elysées, Paris. Their letterhead, however, also lists addresses in Marseilles, Bordeaux, Lille, Lyon and Brussels.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov.
TO: KATHARINE A.
WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
November 19, 1950
Dear Katharine,
I would be very glad to do an article, or a series of articles, on the lines Ross suggests.1 His idea not only does not clash with mine but rather amplifies it and I think I am the right man for it since I know exactly all the moves in the Soviet anti-American game.
Next week I shall send you a list of the material I have at my disposal here. After to-morrow I am going to Cambridge for three or four days and shall see what the Widener has.
Sincerely yours,
TO: KATHARINE A. WHITE
CC, 1 p.
Ithaca, N.Y.
December 7th, 1950
Dear Katharine,
Many thanks for the cheque. A 25% deduction is a very good way of repayment.
I have noted that you want me to wait with that article on Russia until you have dealt with the "Soviet Image of the United States" book. I am not going to write it at all unless you are interested.
The article about Pavlov1 is vividly written but the author does not seem to be aware that Pavlov was after all a crank, that most of the results of his experiments might have been clear a priori, and that the whole matter has been severely and deservedly criticized by leading scientists abroad.
On the other hand, Rebecca West's piece2 is admirable and I am eagerly waiting for its continuation.
Sincerely yours,
P.S. My New Yorker is arriving later and later (Monday or even Wednesday). This has been happening since September but somehow I kept forgetting to mention it.