The Real Lolita
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openly critical of mystery novels: Catherine Theimer Nepomnyaschy, “Revising Nabokov Revising the Detective Novel: Vladimir, Agatha, and the Terms of Engagement,” The Proceedings of the International Nabokov Conference, March 24–27, 2010, Kyoto, Japan. Available at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/creative/epub/harriman/2015/fall/nabakov_and_the_detective_novel.pdf.
called out Dostoevsky as a hack: Nabokov, Lectures on Russian Literature, p. 109—while this line is the opinion of the author, Nabokov’s judgment “Let us always remember that basically Dostoeveski [sic] is a writer of mystery stories” is meant to be pejorative.
As Véra told their close friend Morris Bishop: Schiff, Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), p. 232.
stabbing murders of Dr. Melvin Nimer and his wife: Nabokov almost certainly read “Prosecutor Says Boy, 8, Confesses Killing Parents; Boy Said to Admit Killing Parents,” New York Times, September 11, 1958, p. 1.
police detectives still claiming as recently as 2007: “Nimer Now” (video), Staten Island Advance, February 11, 2007, http://blog.silive.com/advancevideo/2007/02/nimer_now_458.html.
venture west one more time: VNAY, pp. 223–226.
TWENTY-SIX: WRITING AND PUBLISHING LOLITA
Vladimir Nabokov wrote a note: Page-a-Day Diary, 1953, Berg.
“a novel I would be able to finish”: Letter from Nabokov to Edmund Wilson, June 15, 1951.
“crumpling each old manuscript sheet”: VNAY, p. 225.
“enormous, mysterious, heartbreaking novel”: Letter from Nabokov to Katharine White, September 29, 1953.
when Nabokov wrote to Edmund Wilson: Letter from Nabokov to Edmund Wilson, 1947.
The first time was in the fall of 1948: Schiff, Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), p. 166.
“Véra came to the rescue”: Roper, Nabokov in America, p. 149.
“one day in 1950”: Interview with Nabokov by Herbert Gold, Paris Review 41 (Fall 1957), reprinted in Nabokov, Strong Opinions, p. 105.
Lolita was ready to be submitted: VNAY, pp. 255–267.
Edmund Wilson read half: Letter from Edmund Wilson to Nabokov, November 30, 1954.
grew “negative and perplexed”: Letter from Mary McCarthy to Nabokov, November 30, 1954.
Wilson’s present wife, Elena: Letter from Elena Wilson to Nabokov, November 30, 1954.
parody piece in the New Yorker: Dorothy Parker, “Lolita,” New Yorker, August 27, 1955, p. 32.
Nabokov joked to Edmund Wilson: Letter from Nabokov to Edmund Wilson, February 19, 1955.
founder and publisher of Olympia Press: Account is drawn in large part from John De St. Jorre, Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and Its Writers.
submitted Lolita to Girodias: VNAY, p. 265.
As Nabokov later recalled: “Lolita and Mr. Girodias,” Evergreen Review 45 (1967), reprinted in Nabokov, Strong Opinions.
Nabokov received a letter from Walter Minton: Letter to Nabokov from Walter Minton, August 30, 1957, reprinted in Selected Letters: 1940–1977, pp. 224–225.
had succeeded his father, Melville: “Walter Minton on the House ‘Lolita’ Built,” New Yorker, January 8, 2018.
“I thought Nabokov had”: “The Lolita Case,” Time, November 17, 1958.
he had all but given up: Letter from Nabokov to Walter Minton, December 23, 1957.
Lolita had been banned in France: VNAY, pp. 310–315.
Minton’s letter augured a change: Letter from Nabokov to Walter Minton, September 7, 1957; letter from Véra Nabokov to Minton, September 19, 1957; De St. Jorre, Venus Bound, p. 144.
‘“Don’t ever open your mouth’”: Undated interview with Walter Minton by John De St. Jorre, quoted in Venus Bound. When I spoke to Minton in August 2017, he brought up the legality of Lolita’s copyright status without prompting: “I still wonder about that damn copyright.”
As Minton explained: Inference from Nabokov letters to Walter Minton, January–February 1958.
Vladimir and Véra Nabokov left Ithaca: VNAY, pp. 362–364.
“Vladimir was a tremendous success”: Page-a-Day Diary, August 1958, Berg.
Minton sent the following telegram: Reprinted in Selected Letters: 1940–1977, p. 257.
Elizabeth Janeway’s rave review: “The Tragedy of Man Driven by Desire,” New York Times Book Review, August 17, 1958.
The reorder number from retailers: VNAY, p. 365.
“ought to have happened thirty years ago”: Letter from Nabokov to Elena Sikorski, September 6, 1958.
The indefinite leave of 1958: VNAY, p. 378.
TWENTY-SEVEN: CONNECTING SALLY HORNER TO LOLITA
Peter Welding was a young freelance reporter: Obituary of Peter Welding, New York Times, November 23, 1995.
Welding remembered reading of Sally’s plight: “Lolita Has a Secret, Shhh!,” Nugget, vol. 8, no. 5, November 1963.
a New York Post reporter named Alan Levin: Obituary of Alan Levin, New York Times, February 17, 2006.
The Nabokovs subscribed: Manuscript box, miscellaneous clippings, 1960–1965, Berg.
Schiff . . . strongly advised against reading: Interview with Stacy Schiff, April 2017.
TWENTY-EIGHT: “HE TOLD ME NOT TO TELL”
Decades after Ruth Janisch: Account is largely drawn from interviews with “Rachel Janisch,” May 2017, and “Vanessa Janisch,” March 2015, March 2016, and May 2017.
TWENTY-NINE: AFTERMATHS
Ella had connected with a new partner: 1951 Camden telephone directory records both residing at 944 Linden Street.
made their union legal: California marriage records, 1965, retrieved through Ancestry.com.
Five years later, Burkett was dead: Death certificate, State of California Department of Public Health, 1970.
Diana didn’t learn the truth: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, August 2014.
Ella settled back in New Egypt: Obituary of Ella Horner, 1998, Ancestry.com.
Susan died in 2012, and Al passed away: Obituary of Susan Panaro, Burlington County Times, August 5, 2012; obituary of Al Panaro, KoschekandPorterFuneralHome.com, February 25, 2016.
“Did you say that Sally Horner”: Interview with Carol Taylor, December 2016; email from Robin Lee Hambleton, November 2017.
Edward Baker got on with his life: Obituary of Edward Baker, Vineland Daily Journal, July 28, 2014.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 17: Vineland Daily Journal, May 18, 2007.
The two Camden police detectives: “Wilfred L. Dube,” DVRBS.com, http://www.dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeople-WilfredLDube.htm; “Marshall Thompson,” DVRBS.com.
Howard Hornbuckle served one more term: Obituary of Howard Hornbuckle, Petaluma (California) Argus-Courier, May 9, 1962, p. 4.
Mitchell Cohen’s health suffered: Camden Courier-Post, August 30, 1950, p. 1.
including . . . the 1955 execution: Camden Courier-Post, May 4, 1955, p 1.
Then came his next career move: Obituary of Mitchell Cohen, Camden Courier-Post, January 1991.
Palese eventually acquiesced: Obituary of Rocco Palese, Camden Courier-Post, February 27, 1987, p. 19.
Cohen served three years: Obituary of Mitchell Cohen, Asbury Park Press, January 9, 1991, p. 8.
Véra Nabokov continued: Page-a-Day Diary, 1958, Berg.
went out to dinner at Cafe Chambord: The account largely draws from Véra Nabokov’s November 26, 1958, entry in ibid.
unduly preoccupied with a Time magazine article: “The Lolita Case,” Time, November 17, 1958.
unbylined but written by . . . Joyce Haber: Haber worked at Time as a researcher and reporter from 1958 through 1966. While Minton did not comment on whether he had a relationship with Haber, a former colleague recognized the writing as Haber’s.
Comedians turned Lolita into late-night fodder: VNAY, p. 375.
Another bizarre stunt: Ibid., pp. 415–416.
“by nature I am no dramatist”: Preface to Lolita: A Screenplay, p. ix.
changed his mind about adapting Lolita: Letter from Nabokov to Morris Bishop, S
elected Letters: 1940–1977, p. 309.
“a graceful ingenue but not my idea”: Nabokov, “On a Book Entitled Lolita,” Novels, 1955–1962, p. 672.
“I didn’t have to play Lolita”: Interview in the New York Times, 1971.
European newspapers: Manuscript box, miscellaneous clippings, 1960, Berg.
“a first-rate film with magnificent actors”: VNAY, p. 466.
gave his approval for the musical: Ibid., p. 583.
“I think he’s crude”: Interview with Nabokov by Robert Hughes, WNET, September 2, 1965, reprinted in Nabokov, Strong Opinions.
EPILOGUE: ON TWO GIRLS NAMED LOLITA AND SALLY
The irritation is evident: Interview with Nabokov, BBC, July 1962, reprinted in Nabokov, Strong Opinions, p. 15.
He denied Humbert Humbert: Paris Review, “The Art of Fiction No. 40,” 1967.
After one stern denial: BBC interview, reprinted in Strong Opinions, p. 17.
“with crooning sounds and fancy endearments”: Nabokov, Speak, Memory, p. 49.
“The desperate truth of Lolita’s story”: Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran, p. 33.
Index
The pagination of this digital edition does not match the print edition from which the index was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your ebook reader’s search tools.
NOTE: PAGE NUMBERS IN ITALICS INDICATE PHOTOS.
accidents. See car accidents
Albara, Ella, 35. See also Horner, Ella (mother)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll), 54
Amis, Martin, 46
Anchor Review, excerpts of Lolita in, 212, 242
anime, 249
“Annabel Lee” (Poe), 54
Annibale, Emma, 162. See also DiRenzo, Emma
The Annotated Lolita (Nabokov & Appel), 219n, 226
Appel, Alfred, Jr., 54, 219n, 226
Atlantic City (NJ), 19–20, 22–26, 25, 39–40, 138
Auld, Howard, 79–80
Baker, Edward John, 171
background, 170–172
car accident involving, 183–187
civil suits against, 188
life after Sally’s death, 238
on Sally, 183
Baker, Edward, Jr., 238
Baltimore (MD), 83–84, 86–91, 129
Belvedere Hotel (Baltimore), 88
Bend Sinister (Nabokov), 28
Benson, Jacob, 174, 183–184, 188
Berle, Milton, 244
Berry, Amanda, 86
Bishop, Morris, 29, 203, 245
Bishop Dunne Catholic School, 113
Bowen, Oliver, 60
Boyd, Brian, 9–10, 226–227
Brigantine Beach (NJ), 21–23, 39–40
Brottman, Mikita, 6–7
Bruel, Andree, 102
Burkett, Arthur “Otto,” 235–236
Burrough Junior High, 158, 162
butterfly-hunting, 27, 29, 45, 103–105, 165–167, 166, 204, 214–215
Buxbaum, Richard, 102–105
Cahill, William, 139–141, 144
Cambridge (MA)
Lolita’s setting and, 105–106
Nabokov academic career in, 27–28, 29, 166
Camden (NJ). See also Courier-Post (Camden)
decline of, 94, 100
Dworecki case, 76–79
Forstein case and, 70–71
La Salle’s extradition to, 135–136, 138–139, 143–145, 189–190
McDade case, 79–81
mid-century optimism in, 12, 17–18, 41, 93–94
mid-century teen-age life in, 169–170
Sally’s encounters with La Salle in, 15–17, 65
as Sally’s hometown, 2, 18, 36
Sally’s return to, 139–142
statutory rape case, 61–64
“Walk of Death” massacre, 94–100
Camera Obscura (Nabokov), 48–49. See also Laughter in the Dark
Cape May County Gazette, on Wildwood car accident, 187
Caprioni, Dominick, 188
captivity narratives, 84–87, 115–116, 122–123
car accidents
Baker’s (Edward, Jr.), 238
G. Edward Grammar case, 200–202
La Salle’s hit-and-run, 60
in Lolita, 108, 200–203, 220
Pfeffer family’s, 21–24
Sally’s death and, 173–175, 183–188, 221, 257
Carroll, Lewis, 54
Carroll, Thomas, 61
Castro, Ariel, 85–86
Catholic schools, 89–92, 113, 149
Chiemingo, Diana. See Panaro, Diana
Child Pornography Prevention Act (1996), 250
Clara S. Burrough Junior High, 158, 162
Cleveland three abduction case, 85–86
Cohen, Charles, 96–97, 100
Cohen, Maurice, 96
Cohen, Mitchell, 139
advice for Sally and Ella, 148–149, 159
background, 73–75
on death penalty, 81
La Salle’s extradition, 135–136, 138–139, 143–144
La Salle’s guilty plea, 144–146, 147, 190, 192
La Salle’s kidnapping charges, 111
La Salle’s statutory rape case, 63
life after Sally’s death, 239
murder cases prosecuted by, 75, 78–80
Sally’s return home with, 139–141
“Walk of Death,” 98–100
Cohen, Rose, 96–97
Conclusive Evidence (Nabokov), 28, 102, 151–152. See Speak, Memory
connections to Lolita. See real-life connections to Lolita
copyright laws, 210, 213–215
Cornellous (Mother Superior), 90
Cornell University
Nabokov’s academic career at, 8, 29, 101–102, 105, 165–166, 203, 205–206
Nabokov’s leave of absence from, 214, 216
Courier-Post (Camden)
on car accident, 187
on Cohen, M., 41
on La Salle’s arrest, 136–138
on La Salle’s extradition, 137
on Sally’s encounter with Pfeffer family, 22
on Sally’s rescue, 131, 254
on search for Sally, 39
on “Walk of Death” massacre, 98
Covici, Pascal, 208
cross-country trips
of La Salle and Sally, 86–88, 112, 121–123, 138
in Lolita, 12, 28, 154, 178, 202, 219
of Nabokov family, 28–29, 102–105, 165–168, 177, 204–205, 214–216, 227–228
Daiches, David, 105
Dallas (TX)
Janisch family in, 117–118, 121
Sally’s captivity in, 111–116, 118–123, 129, 137, 192–194
Dar (Nabokov), 49–50
Dare, David, 59–60
Dare, Dorothy, 58–65, 145, 192, 196–197
Day, Alvin, 96
The Deer Park (Mailer), 211
Dejesus, Gina, 86
Dietrich, Marlene, 106, 108
DiRenzo, Emma, 17, 162. See also Annibale, Emma
Dolinin, Alexander, 154, 178–179, 181, 218, 254
Doran, Larry, 99
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, 203
Doyle, Arthur Conan, 203
Driscoll, Alfred, 73, 136, 139
Dube, Wilfred, 139, 143–144, 238–239
Dugard abduction case, 85–86
Dworecki case, 75–79
Ellis, Havelock, 29–30, 249, 255
The Enchanter (Nabokov), 53, 221. See also Volshebnik (Nabokov)
Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore), 88–89
Epstein, Jason, 208
Ergaz, Doussia, 209
Farrell, Marie, 90
Ferry, John, 97–98
Field, Andrew, 9, 30, 55, 226
Findley, Everett, 119
five-and-dime store meeting, 15–17
Fogg, Frank (La Salle alias), 58–60, 62, 246
Forstein, Dorothy, 69–71
Forstein, Jules, 69–71
For
stein, Marcy, 70
fountainists, 55
Frank J. Leonard Funeral Home, 185
Freud, Sigmund, 249
Geisel, Ted, 103
Gibbons, John, 128, 130
The Gift (Nabokov), 49–50
“Girl in the Box” abduction case, 85–86
Girodias, Maurice, 209–214
Goff, Ella Katherine, 34. See also Horner, Ella (mother)
Goff, Job, 35, 37
Goff, Susannah, 35, 37
Gogol, Nikolai, 8, 28
Gomez, Manny, 136
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 211–214, 224, 241
Grammar, Dorothy, 200–202
Grammar, G. Edward, 200–202
Grand Teton mountains, 103–105
Guadanini, Irina, 50
Haber, Joyce, 241–242, 243
Hall, Marshall, 136–138
Hanlin, Sarah, 17
Harrie, Armand, 96
Harrie, Madeline, 96
Hazlitt (online magazine), on Lolita-Sally connection, 4–5
Heilfurth, Paul, 174
Hoover, Clark, 95–96
Hornbuckle, Howard, 127–129, 135, 138, 239
Horner, Ella (mother), 140–141
Atlantic City “trip” permission, 19–20
civil suits filed by, 188
on La Salle, 131
La Salle’s history revealed to, 26
life after Sally’s death, 235–237
Lolita parallels, 108–109, 219–220, 246
marriages of, 33–37, 235–236
reporting Sally’s disappearance, 24–25
on Sally’s captivity, 157
Sally’s death and, 175, 185–186
during Sally’s disappearance, 24–26, 67–72
Sally’s letters to, 20, 24, 25, 138
Sally’s rescue and, 126, 130–131
Sally’s reunion with, 139–142, 140–141
as single mother, 16–17, 18, 19, 34, 36–37, 67–68, 71–72
testimony of, 138
Horner, Russell (father), 18, 34, 35–37
Horner, Sally (Florence)
after rescue, in California, 157–158
aliases of, 89, 112, 118
birth of, 34
during captivity, reaching out to others, 122–123, 133, 155
captivity, traveling between cities during, 86–88, 112, 121–123, 138
captivity in Atlantic City, 19–20, 22–26, 25, 39–40, 138
captivity in Baltimore, 83–84, 86–91, 129
captivity in Dallas, 111–116, 118–123, 129,137, 192–194