"Because of the flies."
A touch of high art refused to Conrad or Lawrence.
TO: INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
TL (XEROX), 1 p.
Montreux-Palace Hotel
1820 Montreux, Switzerland
May 9, 1977
Sir,
Legal considerations oblige me to request an immediate explanation of the following passage in John Leonard's review (April 30, 1977), entitled "Hermit of Peking", of Trevor-Roper's book on Sir Edmund Backhouse, a forger:
".... These commercial dreams ... collapsed ... But nobody ever told anybody else that a liar on such an extravagant scale, a Nabokov of Peking, had been anything other than gullible or misunderstood."
What on earth is this meant to mean?
Several months ago in The New York Times Book Review, in reference to a chance character in PALE FIRE, the same reviewer maintained that I was spoofing a dear friend; I chose to ignore the silliness of the invention; but this is going a little too far.
Vladimir Nabokov
Montreux, Palace-Hotel
copy to John Leonard, Esq.1
TO: DMITRI NABOKOV
VN's PORTION OF ALS WRITTEN
WITH VÉRA NABOKOV
Montreux, Switzerland
9 May 1977
My dearest, your roses,1 your fragrant rubies, glow red against a background of spring rain. I wrote to our "Tribunka"2 immediately to set things straight. Personally I think they confused me with Nixon.
I hug you, I'm proud of you, be well, my beloved.3
Index
Abrams, Meyer
letter to, [>]–[>]
Ackermann, Paul Kurt (Boston University Journal)
letter to, [>]–[>]
Ada, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
corrections to, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]
dust jacket design, [>], [>]
excerpts in Playboy, [>], [>]
payment for, [>]–[>]
publicity for, [>], [>], [>], [>]
review of, [>]–[>]
translations of, [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]
VN pleased with, [>]–[>], [>]
"The Admiralty Spire," [>]
Aitken, Gillon, [>]
Aldanov, Mark, [>]
Alexander III, [>]
"Alexander Turgenev, Ambassador of Russian Culture in Partibus Infidelium" (Struve), [>]–[>]
Alfred A, Knopf. See Glauber, Robert M.
Alice in the Looking Glass, [>]
Alice in Wonderland, [>], [>]
Alison, Barley (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
letter to, [>]
Allan, Aron, [>]
Allan, Elizabeth Marinel
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
Allen, Lewis, [>]
American Consul, Prague
letter to, [>]–[>]
American Museum of Natural History, [>]
American Society for the Study of Russian Culture, [>]
The Anchor Review, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
Andersonville (Kantor), [>]
Anna Karenin (Tolstoy), [>], [>]–[>], [>]
translations of, [>], [>], [>]
Annales Contemporaines, [>], [>]
Annan, [>]
Anniversary Notes, [>]
The Annotated Lolita (Appel), [>]
VN's corrections for, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
"An Old Magician Named Nabokov Writes and Lives in Splendid Exile" (Salter), [>]
Appel, Alfred, Jr., [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>]
Apukhtin, Aleksey, [>]
Aragon, Louis, [>]
Arndt, Walter, [>]
"The Artist in Pursuit of Butterflies" (Gold), [>]–[>]
Atlantic Monthly, [>]
See also Weeks, Edward
Auden, W.H., [>]
"The Aurelian," [>]
Avebury, Lady, [>]
Aveling, Eleanor Marx, [>]
Avinoff, Andrey, [>], [>]
Axelrod, George, [>]
"A Bad Day" ("Obida"), [>], [>]
Bagritsky, Edvard, [>]
Bailey, Anthony, [>]
"The Ballad of Longwood Glen," [>], [>]
Barbour, Roger William, [>]
Barcant, Malcolm, [>]–[>]
Bardeleben, V., [>]
Bardot, Brigitte, [>]
Barkham, John, [>]
Beach, Sylvia, [>]
Bell, G.H.
letter to, [>]
Bellow, Saul, [>], [>]
Bend Sinister, [>], [>], [>], [>]
dust jacket design, [>]
synopsis of, [>]–[>]
translations of, [>], [>]
writing of, [>], [>], [>]
Bequaert, Joseph
letter to, [>]–[>]
Berberova, Nina, [>]
Bergin, T.G.
letter to, [>]
Berkman, Sylvia, [>], [>]
Berliner Tageblatt, [>]
Bernatsky, [>]
Bernstein, Marver H.
letter to, [>]
Bertenson, Serge (translator), [>]
Best, Marshall (Viking), [>]
letter to, [>]–[>]
Best American Stories, [>], [>]
Bishop, Alison, [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Bishop, Morris, [>]–[>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Björkman, Carl (Wahlstrom & Widstrand)
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Black, Douglas, [>]
Blandenier, [>]
Bloodmark, Vivian (VN pseudonym), [>]
Bobbs-Merrill, [>], [>], [>]
The Bodley Head, [>], [>], [>]
Bok, Derek C.
letter to, [>]
Bollingen: An Adventure in Collecting the Past (McGuire), [>] Bollingen Foundation, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]
See also Gillmor, Vaun; McGuire, William
"A Bolt from the Blue" (McCarthy), [>]
Booher, Edward E. (McGraw-Hill)
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
A Book of Things About Vladimir Nabokov (Proffer), [>]
Boothe, John (Panther Books)
letter to, [>]–[>]
Borges, Jorge Luis, [>], [>]
Bosch, Hieronymus, [>]
Bowers, Deane, [>]
Boyington, Gregory, [>]
Bradley, James Chester, [>]
Brandeis University, [>]
British Broadcasting Company (BBC), [>], [>]
British Museum, [>]–[>]
Brockway, Wallace (Simon & Schuster)
letters to, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Broderick, John C. (Library of Congress)
letter to, [>]–[>]
Brodsky, Joseph, [>]
"The Bronze Horseman" (Pushkin), [>]
Brooks, Van Wyck, [>]
The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky), [>]
Brower, Reuben
letter to, [>]–[>]
Brown, Francis (New Times Book Review)
letter to, [>]-[>]
Buckley, William F., Jr.
letter to, [>]–[>]
Budberg, Baroness, [>]
Bukovski, Vladimir, [>]
Bunin, Ivan, [>]
letter from, [>]
Burma-Shave jingle, [>]–[>]
Burma-Vita Co.
letter to, [>]–[>]
Butler, Diana, [>]
Butor, Michel, [>]
Butterflies, [>], [>], [>]
articles on, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
books on planned, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
collecting of, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
criticism of books on, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
on book jacket designs, [>]–[>],
[>], [>]–[>]
taxonomy of, [>], [>]–[>]
used with signature, [>], [>], [>]
VN's work as a lepidopterist, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]
The Butterflies of North America (Howes), [>]
Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago (Barcant), [>]–[>]
Caldecott, Oliver (Penguin)
letters to, [>], [>]–[>]
Callier, Jacqueline (VN's secretary), [>], [>]
Camera Obscura. See Laughter in the Dark
Canfield, Cass (Harper & Brothers)
letter to, [>]–[>]
Carlin, M.M., [>], [>]
Carpenter, Frank, [>]
Caylor, Rose (translator), [>]
Censorship, [>]
Chahine, Gilles (translator), [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]
Chaliapin, Feodor, [>]
Chambrun, Jacques, [>]
Chase, Mary, [>], [>]
Chaykovski, Peter Ilych. See Tchaikovksy, Peter Ilych
Chekhov Publishing House, [>]
Chermock, Franklin, [>]
Chernyshevski, Nikolai Gavrilovich, [>]–[>]
"Cherries," [>]–[>]
Chess, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Chisla, [>]
Chopnik, Max, [>]
Chvala, Brother Joseph
letter to, [>]–[>]
Chyorny, Madame, [>], [>]
Chyorny, Sasha, [>] Ciardi, John, [>]
Cingria, Charles-Albert, [>]
letter to, [>]–[>]
Collins, Glenn (New York Times)
letters to, [>], [>]
Collins. See Walter, Michael
Comstock, John Henry, [>]
Comstock, W.P., [>]
Conclusive Evidence. See Speaks Memory
Connell, Evan S., Jr., [>]
The Conversions (Matthews), [>]
Cornell Daily Sun
letter to, [>]–[>]
Cornell University, [>], [>]
See Also Nabokov, Vladimir—academic career
"The Corsair's Lied," [>]
Covici, Pascal (Viking)
letters to, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
Cowley, Malcolm, [>]
Crane, Robert C.
letter to, [>]–[>]
The Creative Writer, [>]
Crook, Arthur (Times Literary Supplement)
letter to, [>]–[>]
Curtiss, Thomas Quinn, [>]
Daiches, David
letter to, [>]
Dalton, Jack
letter to, [>]–[>]
Daly, Joan C.
letters to, [>]–[>]- [>]–[>]
Dans le labyrinthe (Robbe-Grillet), [>]
Dante (Ciardi), [>]
Darkbloom, Vivian (VN pseudonym), [>]–[>]
Davidova, Lucia, [>]
Davidson, [>]
Davies, Joseph, [>]
Day, Gardiner M.
letter to, [>]
Dead Souls (Home Life) (Gogol), [>]
A Death in the Family (Agee), [>]
The Defense (Luzhins Defense), [>], [>], [>]
dust jacket design, [>]–[>]
publication of, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
translations of, [>], [>], [>], [>]
De Jannelli, Altagracia, [>], [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
on VN's writing, [>]
Delgado, Mucio
letter to, [>]–[>]
Demorest, Jean-Jacques
letter to, [>]–[>]
Despair, [>]
publication of, [>], [>]–[>], [>]; [>], [>], [>], [>]
translations of, [>], [>], [>]
Details of a Sunset and Other Stories, [>], [>], [>], [>]
Deutsch, Babette, [>], [>], [>]
"Deutsch and Nabokov" (Carlin), [>]
D.H. Lawrence Fellowship Fund, [>]
Dial Press, [>]
Diaries and Letters, 1945–1962 (Nicolson), [>]–[>]
Die Presse, [>]
Dirig, Robert
letter to, [>]–[>]
Dobell, Byron (Esquire)
letters to, [>], [>]–[>]
Doctor Zhivago (Pasternak), [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
Donague, Dennis
letter to, [>]
Don Quixote (Cervantes), [>]
Doubleday, Doran & Co., [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]
See also Elder, Donald B.; Epstein, Jason; Johnson, Pike, Jr.; McCormick, Kenneth D.
"Double Talk" ("Conversation Piece"), [>]
Drummond, Lindsay, [>]
Dupee, Fred, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
"The Dyer's Hand: Poetry and the Poetic Process" (Auden), [>]
Edinburgh International Festival, [>]
Edition Gallimard, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
Editorial Diana, [>]
Ehrenburg, Ilya, [>]
Elder, Donald B. (Doubleday, Doran & Co.)
letters to, [>]–[>]
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (Kelly), [>]
Elek, Tibor, [>]
Eliot, T.S., [>], [>], [>]
"The Enchanter," [>]–[>]
Encounter
letters to, [>]–[>], [>], [>]
See also Lasky, Melvin
The End of Pity and Other Stories (Macauley), [>]
Enright, D.J., [>], [>]
Epstein, Barbara (New York Review of Books), [>]–[>]
letters to, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]
Epstein, Jason (Doubleday, Doran & Co.), [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>],[>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Ergaz, Doussia, [>], [>], [>], [>]
letter to, [>]–[>]
Escape into Aesthetics: The Art of Vladimir Nabokov (Stegner), [>]
Esquire, [>], [>], [>]
See also Hills, Rust
Essenin, Sergey Aleksandrovich, [>]
Esslin, Martin J.
letter to, [>]–[>]
"The Esthetics of Bliss" (McElroy), [>]
Eugene Onegin, [>], [>], [>], [>]
editions of, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
Guggenheim application for, [>], [>]–[>], [>]—[>], [>]
publication of, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
publication rights, [>]
royalties, [>]–[>], [>]
translations of, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
VN describes, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>]–[>]
VN on reviews of, [>]–[>], [>]
work on, [>], [>], [>], [>]
"Evening," [>]–6
"Evening of Russian Poetry," [>]
Evergreen Review, [>], [>], [>]
"Exile," [>], [>]
The Exploit (Glory), [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]
The Eye, [>], [>]
dust jacket design, [>]–[>]
Facetti, Germano
letter to, [>]
Fact, [>]
Fadiman, Clifton, [>]
Fainberg, Victor, [>]
Fairbanks, Gordon, [>]
"The Famous and Infamous Wares of Monsieur Girodias" (Popkin), [>] Faulkner, William, [>]
Fay, Stephen
letter to, [>]–[>]
Fayard. See Librairie Arthème Fayard
Feigin, Anna (Anyuta), [>], [>]
Feigin, Ilya (Lyusia), [>], [>]
Feltrinelli, Giangiacomo, [>]
Festschrift, [>]–[>], [>]
Field, Andrew, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Field, William D.
letter to, [>]–[>]
A Field Guide to the Butterflies of North America (Klots), [>]
Finley, John H., Jr. (Harper & Brothers)
letter to, [>]–[
>]
Finnegans Wake (Joyce), [>]
Fischer, John (Harper fit Brothers)
letters to, [>]—[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Fondaminsky, Ilya, [>], [>], [>], [>]
Forbes, William T.M., [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Ford Foundation, [>], [>]
Forgetting Elena (White), [>]
Form Letter, [>]
Foster, Ludmila A., [>]
Four Continents Bookstore, [>]
Fox, Katherine (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
letter to, [>]
Fox, R.M., [>]
Fractions (Field), [>]
François, André, [>]
Frantz, John C.
letters to, [>]–[>]
Frater, Alexander
letter to, [>]
Freud, Sigmund, [>]
"From Glen Lake to Restricted Rest," [>]
Fuller, Roy, [>]
Galsworthy, John, [>]
"Gardens and Parks," [>], [>]
Garnett, Constance, [>], [>], [>]
Gerhardie, William, [>]
Gibbs, Wolcott, [>]
The Gift (Dar), [>], [>], [>], [>]
book cover design, [>]
dust jacket design, [>]
publication of, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
reviewed, [>], [>]
translations of, [>], [>]
VN describes, [>]–[>]
Gilliatt, Penelope, [>]–[>]
Gillmor, Vaun (Bollingen Foundation)
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]
Girodias, Maurice (Olympia Press), [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]–172, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]
contract with VN, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]
personality of, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Glauber, Robert M. (Alfred A. Knopf)
letters to, [>]
Glenny, Michael, [>]
Glory. See The Exploit
A Glossary of Literary Terms (Abrams), [>]–[>]
The God Botherers (Oakes), [>]
Gofman, M.I., [>]
Gogol, Nikolai, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]
"Gogol through the Looking-Glass," [>]
Gold, Herbert, [>], [>], [>]–[>]
Gordon, John, [>]
Gorky, Maxim, [>]
Goulden, Mark, [>]
G.P. Putnam's Sons, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]
See also Minton, Walter J.
Grail, Alex (Librairie Arthème Fayard)
letter to, [>]–[>]
"Grandmother Nabokov" (Updike), [>]
Graves, Robert, [>]–[>]
Greene, Graham, [>]
letters to, [>]–[>], [>]
letter from, [>]
Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters 1940-1977 Page 49
