Vera

by Stacy Schiff

  52 “Nabokov exhibits the most”: Joyce Carol Oates, “A Personal View of Nabokov,” Saturday Review of the Arts, January 1973, 37.

  53 Asked if he would ever travel: Interview with Schirman, June 17, 1996.

  54 “She had many” to “was Jewish”: Interview with Z. Shakhovskoy, October 25, 1995.

  55 “Her blue eyes” to “his actual face”: “Pustynia,” Novyj zhurnal, June 1973, 27–33.

  56 “like a true aristocrat”: HS to Shakhovskoy, January 7, 1979 (transcribed copy of original), Amherst.

  57 “a frozen desert”: Le Matin des Livres, May 15, 1981.

  58 “Why did you find it necessary”: Interview with HS, February 26, 1995.

  59 “Sometimes when”: Roberta Smoodin, Inventing Ivanov (New York: Atheneum, 1985), 31.

  60 “How,” she asks herself: Smoodin, 293.

  61 “Without drawing a portrait”: Field, 1977, 180.

  62 Pressured for a description: Interview with Fred Hills, April 7, 1995.

  63 “matter-of-fact, father of muck”: LATH, 226.

  64 “ultimate and immortal one”: LATH, 122.

  65 “turquoise temple-vein”: LATH, 233.

  66 “I read everything attentively”: LATH, 231.

  67 slams the door shut: LATH, 226; SM, 295.

  68 “your dear delicate hand”: LATH, 227.

  69 “to present to the world”: Vronskaya, The Independent, April 16, 1991.

  70 “dubbed jesterly”: Untitled poem, October 1, 1974, VNA.

  71 “Shade, Sybil”: PF, 313.

  72 “advises N” to “N’s letters”: Boyd, 1991, 769–70.

  73 “To say it plainly”: Broyard, The New York Times, October 10, 1974.

  74 a toll on the work: The collective disappointment brings to mind Braque’s dismissal of Picasso. “He used to be a great artist, but now he’s only a genius.”

  75 “This is the novel”: Peter Ackroyd, “Soi-disant,” The Spectator (London), April 19, 1975, 476.

  76 “Here we are at last”: VN to VéN, April 15, 1975, SL, 546.

  77 “40 years since”: VN diary, May 8, 1963, VNA.

  78 great artist in nostalgia: Julian Moynahan, Vladimir Nabokov, Pamphlets on American Writers 96 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971), 5.

  79 “Incidentally, Mashen’ka”: VéN to Schirman, April 21, 1975, VNA.

  80 “Though basically a law-abiding”: VéN to ML, April 15, 1975, PC.

  81 “noisy construction”: VéN to Weidenfeld, June 7, 1975, VNA.

  82 “Rather incredibly”: VéN to the Proffers, June 27, 1975, VNA.

  83 nervous and edgy: VéN to E. Levin, April 24, 1976, PC.

  84 “is a hopeless undertaking”: VéN to Daly, November 24, 1975, PW.

  85 “Only because you’re not”: Cited in Boyd, 1991, 658. Interview with Loo, May 9, 1998.

  86 “As for me, I am just”: VéN to Nat Hoffman, February 24, 1976, VNA.

  87 “I have always thought”: Schebeko to VéN, February 12, 1976, Interview with Marie Schebeko Biche, February 10, 1997.

  88 “I am sorry that my son”: VéN to Hoffman, August 5, 1975, VNA.

  89 she appealed to him: VéN to DN, November 16, 1975, VNA.

  90 “twin soul”: Nicoletta Pallini interview with VéN and DN, “Una vita segreta,” Gioia, October 16, 1989. Also “Così traduco mio padre,” Il Secolo, October 11, 1987.

  91 horrified by the results: VéN to Helen Jakovlev, June 3, 1983, VNA; interview with Nilly Sikorsky, March 4, 1995.

  92 “He does not know”: VéN to Hills, McGraw-Hill, April 20, 1976, VNA.

  93 shiver of sadness: Interview with Christine Semenenko, January 27, 1998.

  94 “I am writing you on”: VéN to Hills, McGraw-Hill, February 5, 1977, VNA.

  95 hunched and diminished: See also Buckley, The Right Word, 379–81.

  96 The BBC dialogue: The account is Robert Robinson’s, “The Last Interview,” in Quennell, Vladimir Nabokov, 119–20.

  97 “My husband wants me to say”: VéN to Loo, McGraw-Hill, April 4, 1977, VNA.

  98 full and invigorating: Ellendea Proffer to author, May 9, 1997.

  99 He had screamed: VN diary entry, April 24, 1976, VNA.

  100 not even begin to consider: VéN to Nicholas Nabokov, June 27, 1977, VNA.

  101 “the physicians’ manner”: DN, “On Revisiting Father’s Room,” The New York Times Book Review, March 2, 1980, repr. Quennell, 136. Interview with DN, February 27, 1995.

  102 A few days before the last: VéN to Carl Proffer, June 15, 1983, Michigan.

  103 “S’il vous plaît, Madame”: Interview with DN, January 1997.

  104 “But please, no tears”: Interview with HS, February 26, 1995.

  105 similar request: Interview with Nilly Sikorsky, March 4, 1995.

  106 On the funeral: Interviews with HS; Loo; Marina Ledkovsky, May 19, 1997.

  107 “Let’s rent an airplane”: Interviews with DN, February 27, 1995, January 1997.

  108 “I am writing to inform”: VéN to Schebeko, July 4, 1977, VNA.

  109 contradicted a niece: Interview with Marina Ledkovsky, May 16, 1998.

  110 something was radically wrong: Interview with HS, January 15, 1997.

  111 “it is so much more grim”: VéN to Anastasia Rodzianko, July 26, 1979, VNA.

  112 “It doesn’t feel”: Interview with Boyd, November 23, 1996.

  113 “A book lives longer”: LL, 125.

  114 packed Dmitri off: VéN to Mrs. Timm, August 30, 1977, VNA.

  115 “half an invalid”: VéN to E. Levin, August 7, 1979, VNA.

  116 a question mark: Interview with Ivan Nabokov. VéN wrote Ivan’s mother, Natalie Nabokov, that she was bent nearly in two, September 3, 1980, VNA.

  117 the Bishop reunion: Interview with Alison Bishop Jolly, May 20, 1995.

  118 the most beautiful woman: A. B. Jolly to DN, April 11, 1991, VNA.

  119 “I have received from”: VéN to Nat Hoffman, November 23, 1978, VNA.

  120 “We have been living”: VéN to Iseman, January 31, 1978, PW.

  121 “She tried to catch him”: A. B. Jolly to author, July 7, 1998.

  122 creative whittling: Interview with Iseman, October 3, 1995.

  123 one of her favorite pastimes: VéN to Vera Peltenburg, June 5, 1978, VNA.

  124 deeply touched: Interview with Matthew J. Bruccoli, April 18, 1995.

  125 a note of entreaty: Interview with E. Levin, June 16, 1995.

  126 “Don’t forget me”: VéN to the Appels, July 3, 1980, VNA.

  127 “I do hope you will visit”: VéN to Appel, October 30, 1983, VNA.

  128 still insisting she lacked: VéN to Berkman, April 20, 1983.

  129 neither her Russian nor her English: Boyd to author, June 14, 1997.

  130 “Since they cannot talk”: VéN to Elena Jakovlev, September 1984.

  131 “that nothing is impossible”: Buckley to VéN, February 17, 1980, VNA.

  132 “But at least it is”: VéN to Barabtarlo, September 5, 1980, VNA.

  133 “stupidly generous” and “illiteracies”: VéN to Parker, December 29, 1982, VNA.

  134 “I have now decided”: VéN to the Proffers, November 29, 1982, Michigan. In some card catalogues, she appears as the author of the Russian Pale Fire.

  135 “This is very important”: VéN to Michael Juliar, January 22, 1986, PC.

  136 And when in doubt: VéN to Kathryn Medina, Doubleday, July 19, 1978, VNA.

  137 “You may find”: VéN to Bruccoli, April 8, 1980, VNA.

  138 A Roman author: VéN to Bruccoli, August 27, 1979, VNA.

  139 “What an impressively”: Cited in Bruccoli to VéN, February 25, 1980, VNA.

  140 the two essential aspects: VéN to Boyd, June 21, 1985, VNA.

  141 wished he did not imitate: VéN to Carl Proffer, August 1, 1978, Michigan. The writer in question was Andrei Bitov.

  142 “No one else—not students”: Boyd to VéN, July 6, 1985, VNA.

&nbs
p; 143 “I was not going”: VéN to E. Levin, December 21, 1979, VNA. See The New York Review of Books, July 19, 1979.

  144 “1) to prove my hatred” to “representatives”: VéN to Schirman, July 20, 1979, VNA.

  145 “was not so much about”: DN, The Nabokovian 29 (Fall 1992), 15.

  146 begging a mutual friend: Interview with Karlinsky, September 10, 1997.

  147 rebuked one Parisian: VéN to Evgenia Cannac, February 11, 1980, VNA.

  148 “I shall not love you less”: VéN to Natalie Nabokov, July 18, 1980, VNA.

  149 she hid her hands: Interview with Karlinsky, May 25, 1998.

  150 “I loathe organizations”: VéN to Rowohlt, December 5, 1980, VNA.

  151 “between her physical”: Robin Kemball to author, March 6, 1997.

  152 “stood for a long time”: GIFT, 205.

  153 astonished a scholar: Interview with Barabtarlo, December 27, 1995.

  154 suggest a liberty: Barabtarlo to author, June 30, 1998.

  155 “Could be” to “Absolutely”: Boyd to author, December 14, 1997.

  156 “My husband would never”: Interview with Barabtarlo.

  157 prominent Nabokov critic: E. Tolstoy, Smena (St. Petersburg), April 11, 1991.

  158 terrified of her: Interview with Vladimir Sikorsky; Interviews with Frank Taylor, May 17, 1995; Herbert Gold, June 22, 1995.

  159 Paul Bowles: Interview with Bruccoli, April 18, 1995.

  160 most of them were illiterate: VéN to Cannac, June 20, 1980, VNA.

  161 warmhearted regret: VéN to Alison Bishop, May 6, 1983; interview with V. Crespi, January 26, 1996.

  162 a little accident: See DN, “Close Calls and Fulfilled Dreams,” Antaeus (Autumn 1988), 299–323.

  163 “like a rare animal”: Interview with DN, February 27, 1995.

  164 under the weather: Interview with Nat Hoffman, January 23, 1997.

  165 Those who saw her: Interview with E. Proffer, May 15, 1996.

  166 “The car was wholly”: VéN to Joan de Peterson, May 13, 1981, VNA.

  167 “Dmitri has seen”: VéN to Serge Nabokov, September 25, 1981, VNA.

  168 about her life: Martin Amis to VéN, April 15, 1981, VNA.

  169 “frozen with deference”: Interview with Amis, March 10, 1997. The Observer piece, from which “purple lace” comes, is reprinted in Visiting Mrs. Nabokov, 113–21.

  170 “Don’t ever let”: Interview with Parker, March 2, 1995.

  171 “was as a young man,” and the denial: Amis, 118. Interview with Amis; VéN to Amis, September 11, 1981, VNA.

  172 could not impress: VéN to Karlinsky, June 17, 1981, VNA. Karlinsky’s piece ran in an abridged form in The Partisan Review 50, no. 1 (1983). It places VN within an historical context but in no way diminishes his work, in or out of the classroom. It does suggest an occasional grudging admiration for Dostoyevsky.

  173 “You are not a publisher”: VéN to Bruccoli, May 18, 1981, VNA.

  174 He testifies that there: Interview with Karlinsky, September 10, 1997.

  175 so long as he did not mention: VéN to Parker, February 4, 1984, VNA.

  176 deleting them: She explained her rationale to Boyd: “There are several reasons why I wish to be kept out of the book as much as possible. 1) I am a private person, and would like to stay so. 2) I don’t think about my letters, write them anyhow and they are not fit to be quoted. Incidental information that I impart is not meant to be treated as anything absolute. Not fit for footnotes,” VéN to Boyd, May 2, 1986, VNA. She had her wish in some respects: The correspondence that constitutes SL is so carefully selected as to be misleading. As one critic concluded of VN on parsing the collection, “He usually served as his own agent.” John M. Kopper, in Alexandrov, Garland Companion, 62.

  177 “What should I”: Amis, Visiting Mrs. Nabokov, 119. Interview with Amis.

  178 “You were very” to “from VN”: Interview with Boyd, November 21, 1996.

  179 “No” to “Unanswerable”: D. Barton Johnson, Ellendea Proffer interview with VéN and DN, Russian Literary Triquarterly 24 (January 1991), 73–85.

  180 “Madame Nabokov” and “My life”: Pallini, Gioia, October 16, 1989.

  181 people became more attentive: Interview with Karlinsky, September 10, 1997.

  182 “Suffice it to say”: Barabtarlo to author, February 15, 1997.

  183 “For once,” Véra wrote: VéN to Loo, McGraw-Hill, May 16, 1979, VNA.

  184 “I don’t know her patronymic”: Boyd interview with VéN, December 19, 1981, Boyd archive.

  185 a beaming smile: Interview with Barabtarlo.

  186 “young women who knew”: VéN to Daly, April 17, 1986, VNA.

  187 “made a great number”: VéN to Carl Proffer, August 26, 1983, VNA.

  188 “like a fool”: VéN to Alfred and Nina Appel, March 5, 1986, VNA.

  189 On the “Queen of Spades” research: Interview with Barabtarlo. VN to Gleb Struve, April 15, 1971, LOC; VéN to Barabtarlo, May 6, 1988. See “A Possible Source for Pushkin’s ‘Queen of Spades,’ ” Russian Literary Triquarterly 24 (January 1991), 43–62. VN’s note promising more on the La Motte-Fouqué connection appears in EO, vol. 3, 97.

  190 “You speak of depression”: VéN to Cannac, August 25, 1980, VNA.

  191 “Though very old”: VéN to Karlinsky, April 9, 1986, VNA.

  192 “exquisite pain”: VéN to E. Levin, April 19, 1988, VNA.

  193 twice said their good-byes: Interview with DN, October 24, 1996.

  194 “For half a year”: VéN to Boyd, May 4, 1988, VNA.

  195 seller did not seem: VéN to Robin Kemball, February 13, 1990, VNA.

  196 “I live in Montreux”: VéN to E. Levin, October 5, 1989, VNA.

  197 “a hunchbacked” to “facial expressions”: E. Levin to VéN, October 20, 1989, VNA.

  198 not having much fun: Interviews with DN, May 26, 1998, Nikki Smith, September 24, 1998.

  199 Tears began to roll: Interview with Parker, March 2, 1995.

  200 “No, never”: Interview with E. Proffer, May 15, 1996.

  201 “Aunt Vera” and “very bad”: Irina Korsunsky conversation, cited by Lazar Feygin to author, September 14, 1995.

  202 “Is there anything” to “quick death”: Interview with V. Crespi, May 20, 1998.

  203 “Véra Nabokov, 89”: The New York Times, April 11, 1991. For other tributes, see The Nabokovian 26 (Spring 1991), i–x.

  204 “the monument called ‘Nabokov’ ”: Appel to DN, April 8, 1991, VNA. The sentiment was shared by family members. In her condolence letter to VéN of August 28, 1977 (VNA), Nilly Sikorsky had written, “je suis convaincue que cette oeuvre est vraiment votre oeuvre commune à tous les deux.”

  205 “the movements of stars”: VN to Jannelli, July 14, 1938, Lilly.

  206 the black cat: Interviews with DN, February 26, 1995, Morris Kahn, July 6, 1998.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  1 “The unravelling of a riddle”: Unpublished last chapter to SM, LOC. Nabokov worked on the pages for about two months, revising them innumerable times. In the end he decided the fictional premise of the chapter conflicted with the tone of the rest of the memoir. VN to Katharine White, August 2, 1950, BMC.

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  For a complete Nabokov bibliography, see Michael Juliar’s Vladimir Nabokov: A Descriptive Bibliography (New York: Garland, 1986), regularly updated in The Nabokovian.

  Alexandrov, Vladimir E., ed. The Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Garland, 1995.

  Amis, Martin. Visiting Mrs. Nabokov. New York: Harmony Books, 1993.

  Appel, Alfred, Jr., ed. The Annotated Lolita. New York: Vintage, 1991.

  Appel, Alfred, Jr., and Charles Newman, eds. Triquarterly 17 (1970). Reprinted as Nabokov: Criticism, Reminiscences, Translations and Tributes. Evanston, Il.: Northwestern University Press, 1970.

  Appel, Alfred. Nabokov’s Dark Cinema. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

  ———. “Nabokov’s Puppet Show.”
The New Republic, January 14 and 21, 1967.

  L’Arc 24 (Spring 1964). Special Nabokov issue. Aix-en-Provence.

  Barabtarlo, Gennady. Aerial View: Essays on Nabokov’s Art and Metaphysics. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.

  Berberova, Nina. The Italics Are Mine. New York: Knopf, 1992.

  Billington, James H. The Icon and the Axe. New York: Vintage, 1970.

  Blake, Patricia. Introduction to Writers in Russia 1917–78, by Max Hayward. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.

  Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

  ———. Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.

  Brenner, Conrad. “Nabokov: The Art of the Perverse.” The New Republic, June 23, 1958, 18–21.

  Buhks, Nora, ed. Vladimir Nabokov et l’emigration. Cahiers de l’emigration russe, 2. Paris: L’Institut d’études slaves, 1993.

  Davis, Linda H. Onward and Upward: A Biography of Katharine S. White. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

  Desanti, Dominique. Vladimir Nabokov: essais et reves. Paris: Julliard, 1994.

  Diment, Galya. Pniniad: Vladimir Nabokov and Marc Szeftel. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.

  Ehrenburg, Ilya. Memoirs 1921–1941. Translated by Tatiana Shebunina. Cleveland: World Publishing, 1964.

  ———. People and Life, 1891–1921. Translated by Anna Bostock and Yvonne Knapp. New York: Knopf, 1962.

  Europe 791 (March 1995). Special Nabokov issue. Paris.

  Field, Andrew. Nabokov: His Life in Art. Boston: Little Brown, 1967.

  ———. Nabokov: His Life in Part. New York: Viking, 1977.

  ———. VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Crown, 1986.

  Fraser, Kennedy. Ornament and Silence. New York: Knopf, 1996.

  Gibian, George, and Stephen Jan Parker, eds. The Achievements of Vladimir Nabokov. Ithaca: Cornell Center for International Studies, 1984.

  Girodias, Maurice. Une journée sur la terre. Vol. I, L’Arrivée. Paris: Éditions de la Difference, 1990.

  ———. Une journée sur la terre. Vol. II, Les Jardins d’eros. Paris: Éditions de la Difference, 1990.

  ———, ed. L’Affaire Lolita. Paris: Olympia Press, 1957.