Letters to Véra

by Vladimir Nabokov

  Despair: VN began to write Despair in June 1931, finishing the first draft by September. He brought the manuscript of the novel to Paris to revise.

  Kuprin: Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (1870–1938), Russian novelist and memoirist.

  Weidle: Vladimir Vasilievich Weidle (1895–1979), literary scholar, historian of the Russian emigration and poet.

  Letter of 25 October 1932

  Sergey Rodzyanko: Sergey Nikolaevich Rodzyanko (1878–1949), deputy of the Fourth Duma, member of the Octobrist party. His uncle, Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzyanko (1859–1924), had been chairman of the State Duma and during the February Revolution of 1917 had worked closely with VDN while preparing the Tsar’s abdication documents.

  Procope: Le Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris, rue de l’Ancienne Comédie, Paris 6.

  Henry Muller: Henry Muller (1902–80), French writer and journalist, from 1923 a reader for Grasset.

  Jean Fayard: Jean Fayard (1902–78), French writer and journalist, winner, in 1931, of the Prix Goncourt. He was director of Librairie Arthème Fayard, the publishing house founded by his grandfather. In 1934, VN would publish with them Denis Roche’s translation of his novel The Defence, La Course du fou (Paris: A. Fayard, 1934).

  offer translations of my stories to them and so on: These hopes did not materialize. VN’s first publication with Nouvelle Revue Française would be the essay ‘Pouchkine, ou le vrai et le vraisemblable’ (1937).

  Kovarsky: Ilya Nikolaevich Kovarsky (1880–1962), doctor, member of the Socialist Revolutionary party, and, in 1917, assistant to Vadim Rudnev, then mayor of Moscow; in 1919 he emigrated to France, in 1940 to the US. In Paris he practised medicine, and founded the publishing and bookselling company, Rodnik (Spring). He seems to have played a key role in the publication of the book version of Podvig (Glory) by the Sovremmenye Zapiski Publishing House (Paris, 1932).

  Levinson: Andrey Yakovlevich Levinson (1887–1933), literary and theatre critic, professor at the Sorbonne. His essay, ‘V. Sirine et son joueur d’échecs’, Nouvelles littéraires, February 1930, was a major early overview.

  L’addition … : Fr. ‘The bill, please.’

  Tissen: Or Thyssen, Tiessen. Unidentified.

  Gabriel Marcel: Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973), French Christian-existentialist philosopher, playwright, literary and music critic of Nouvelle Revue Française.

  Ergaz: Ida Mikhaylovna Ergaz (1904–67), known as Doussia; French translator, later VN’s continental agent.

  Nemirovsky: Irina Lvovna (Irène) Nemirovsky (1903–42), French writer. By the time VN came to Paris, she had five novels published with Fayard and Grasset.

  Bryanchaninov: Possibly Aleksandr Nikolaevich Bryanchaninov (1874–1960), publicist and right-wing political activist.

  Logos warehouse: A booksellers’ warehouse in Berlin, associated with the publisher Slovo, and run by Iosif Gessen.

  en train: Fr. ‘in good spirits’.

  Yu. Yu.: Most likely, Yulia Yulievna, wife of Gleb Struve.

  Bernstein: Henri Bernstein (1876–1953), French playwright.

  Romochka: Roma (Romochka) Klyachkin (Kliatchkine, 1901–59), translator, active in émigré community, one of VN’s pre-Véra girlfriends.

  the Shklyavers: Georgy Gavrilovich Shklyaver (1897–70), lawyer and professor of international law at the University of Paris.

  Nicolas’s music: VN’s cousin, the composer Nicolas Nabokov.

  Letter of 28 or 29 October 1932

  Date: VéN dated the letter 19 October, but the correct date is probably 28 October, since Osorgin’s review, mentioned in the letter, appeared on 27 October.

  Danya: See note to letter of 19 June 1926 (Danechka).

  Mme Adamov: Presumably Nadezhda Adamov (see letter of 24 October 1932).

  Polyakova: Anastasia Alekseevna (Nastya) Polyakova (1877–1947), famous performer of Gypsy songs.

  Klyachkin: Perhaps ‘Roma’s brother’ mentioned above.

  Bac berepom: A reference to a note found in Luzhin’s pocket by two drunken Germans in The Defence. They misconstrue a two-word fragment in Russian cursive (‘Вас вечером’, Vas vecherom, ‘you tonight’), reading it as meaningless characters in Roman script (The Defence, p. 147).

  travel with a tub, in line with Martin: A reference to VN’s Glory, whose hero, Martin Edelweiss, always baths in his own rubber tub.

  Osorgin’s article: Mikhail Osorgin, ‘[Review] ‘Podvig’. Paris: “Sovremennye zapiski”, 1932’, Poslednie novosti, 27 October 1932, p. 3.

  Adamovich’s verbiage: G. V. Adamovich. ‘[Review] “Sovremennye zapiski”. Kn. 50-ya. Chast’ literaturnaya’, Poslednie novosti, 27 October 1932, p. 3: ‘Sirin’s novel Camera Obscura is as entertaining as before, deftly constructed, and superficially brilliant. It is difficult, of course, given the productivity the young author shows, to expect new masterpieces all the time. […] Outwardly, the novel is successful, that’s unarguable. But it is empty. It is exceptional cinema, but rather weak literature.’

  how pleasant […]: VéN here said ‘No!’– meaning that she was breaking off this sentence to move on to the next.

  ‘Music’: The short story ‘Muzyka’, written early 1932, published Poslednie novosti, 27 March 1932, p. 2; and in Soglyadatay (Paris: Russkie Zapiski, 1938).

  Sonya: VéN’s sister, Sofia Slonim.

  Ask the old man … Zyoka: Ask Iosif Hessen about his son Georgy (Zyoka).

  a poem about Kolbsheim: These three previously unpublished verse lines can be read as a finished poem, although VN may have written a longer text, now lost.

  Letter of 29 October 1932

  Danya: Unidentified.

  Znossko: Evgeny Aleksandrovich Znosko-Borovsky (1884–1954), chess-player, author of books on chess, literary and theatre critic. VN repeatedly spells his name as ‘Znossko’.

  Ge: Nikolay Nikolaevich Ge (1857–1940), son of the Russian painter Nikolay Nikolaevich Ge (1831–94); he taught Russian at the Sorbonne and promoted his father’s legacy in Europe.

  a little Russian girl. […]: VéN: ‘All of that is of no interest to you.’

  Letter of 31 October 1932

  Fondik: Fondaminsky.

  American professor: Alexander Kaun (1889–1944), Russian-born professor of Russian Literature at the University of California at Berkeley.

  Benois: Aleksandr Nikolaevich Benois (1870–1960), artist, art historian and art critic, one of the founders of the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) circle and the journal Mir Iskusstva, a friend and colleague of VN’s father.

  Lukash. […]: VéN: ‘I will omit everything about Lukash.’ Ivan Lukash, writer, friend and occasional literary collaborator of VN in the latter’s early years in Berlin. VN recalled him as ‘a good friend, and a remarkable writer’ (TD, p. 142).

  Borman: Unidentified.

  Dovid Knut: Duvid Meerovich Fiksman, pen-name Dovid Knut (1900–1955), poet, member of ‘Perekryostok’.

  Mandelstam: Yury Vladimirovich Mandelstam (1908–43), poet, literary critic and member of ‘Perekryostok’.

  Weidle’s wife: Lyudmila Victorovna Baranovsky (1904–?), Vladimir Weidle’s second wife.

  Magda’s charms: Magda is the hero’s passion and downfall in Camera Obscura (Laughter in the Dark). Many of the editorial board of Sovremennye zapiski, which published all VN’s Russian novels in serial form from 1929 to 1940, were former Socialist Revolutionaries.

  Letter of 1 November 1932

  interview for Poslednie novosti and Segodnya: ‘U V. V. Sirina’ (‘At V. V. Sirin’s’), Poslednie novosti, 3 November 1932, p. 2, reprinted as ‘Vstrecha s V. Sirinym’ (‘A Meeting with V. Sirin’), Segodnya, 5 November 1932, p. 8.

  ‘lies’ and ‘lodges’: In the Russian, lozh’ and lozh.

  Evreinov: Nikolay Nikolaevich Evreinov (1879–1953), renowned director, playwright, theatre critic and philosopher.

  Kyandzhuntsev: Savely (Saba, Sava) Kyandzhuntsev, VN’s classmate at Tenishev School.

  Letter 1 of 2 November 1932<
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  Bem: Alfred Bem.

  the old man Kaplan’s: Father of Sergey Kaplan, VN’s pupil in Berlin.

  Mother Maria: Elizaveta Yurievna Skobtsov (née Pilenko, Kuzmin-Karavaev in her first marriage; Mother Maria, St Mary of Paris; 1891–1945), poet, memoirist and theologian, canonized by the Constantinople Patriarchy in 2004.

  Kuzmin-Karavaev: Dmitry Vladimirovich Kuzmin-Karavaev (1886–1959), a lawyer, who in 1920 converted to Catholicism and in 1922 was exiled from Russia. Headed the Russian Catholic Mission in Berlin (1926–31) and later served in France and Belgium.

  my reading: The Sirin evening would take place on 15 November 1932 at the Musée Sociale, 5 rue Las Cases.

  Ilya Isidorovich: Fondaminsky.

  Kremenetsky: Semyon Isidorovich Kremenetsky is the main character of Mark Aldanov’s trilogy Klyuch (The Key, 1929), Begstvo (Escape, 1932), and Peshchera (The Cave, 1934–6).

  Gruzenberg: Oskar Gruzenberg, see letter of 24 October 1932.

  conférencier: Fr. ‘master of ceremonies’.

  Struve: Probably the father of Gleb Struve, Pyotr Berngardovich Struve (1870–1944), first a Marxist, then a liberal politician, deputy of the State Duma, political thinker and editor.

  Kartashev: Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev (1875–1960), Russian Orthodox historian.

  Florovsky: Georgy Vasilievich Florovsky (1893–1979), Eastern Orthodox priest, theologian, historian, who taught at the St Serge Institute of Orthodox Theology in Paris.

  Lolly Lvov: Lolly Ivanovich Lvov (1888–1967), journalist, member of the editorial board of Rossiya i slavyanstvo.

  Peter Ryss: Pyotr Yakovlevich Ryss (1879[1870?]–1948), historian, political commentator and secretary of Poslednie novosti.

  Russian journalist Levin: Isaak Osipovich Levin (1876–1944), historian, publicist and journalist.

  Felsen and another classmate of mine: Felsen was not VN’s classmate; VN here means: other than Savely Kyandzhuntsev.

  forgotten his name: Probably Savely Grinberg.

  about Mother: Who had been widowed in 1922 when VN’s father came to Milyukov’s defence against his would-be assassins. Mutual friends of the Nabokovs and Milyukovs repeatedly wrote to the Milyukovs, who were comfortably off, beseeching them to help relieve the desperate plight of EN, but to little avail (Nadezhda Rodionova, ‘Uchastie Milyukovykh v sud’be sem’i V. D. Nabokova posle ego gibeli’ in M. Yu. Sorokina, ed., Myslyashchie miry rossiyskogo liberalizma: Pavel Milyukov (1859–1943) (Moscow: Dom Russkogo Zarubezh’ya im. Aleksandra Solzhenitsyna and Bibliothèque Tourguéniev, 2010), pp. 214–25).

  Mlle Klyachkin: Roma (Romochka) Klyachkin.

  nouvelles: Fr. ‘stories’.

  Esther’s: Unidentified.

  ‘Terra Incognita’: The story ‘Terra Incognita’, Poslednie novosti, 22 November 1931, pp. 2–3; collected in Sog, RB. No early translation into French appears to have been published.

  Teryuz: Unidentified.

  aunt Nina: Nina Dmitrievna (née Nabokov, 1860–1944), sister of VDN; from 1888 to 1910 Baroness Rausch von Traubenberg, then Nina Kolomeytsev.

  Muma: Maria Sergeevna Zapolsky (née Nabokov, 1900–1972), VN’s cousin.

  Nikolay Nikolaevich: Former Vice-Admiral Nikolay Nikolaevich Kolomeytsev (1867–1944). See SM, pp. 189, 193.

  Rausches: Nikolay Rausch von Traubenberg, his wife Maria Vasilievna (1884–1970, née Menzelintsev, by first marriage Obolensky), and their two children.

  the young lady … Mme Rausch’s daughter by her first marriage: Maria Nikolaevna Obolensky (1914–46). VN had written ‘Aunt Nina’s daughter,’ but VéN, reading out the letter into BB’s tape recorder, corrected to ‘[Mme] Rausch’s daughter.’

  He’s a singer: Muma’s husband, Vladimir Evgenievich Zapolsky (1898–1982).

  Letter 2 of 2 November 1932

  Natasha and Ivan: Nathalie Nabokov and her son Ivan.

  the sister: Irina Kyandzhuntsev.

  Liteyny: Liteyny Prospect in St Petersburg.

  long poems: ‘Pegas’ (‘Pegasus’), written 25 October 1917, published in Gennady Barabtarlo, Aerial Views: Essays on Nabokov’s Art and Metaphysics (New York: Peter Lang, 1993), pp. 248–50. The Kyandzhuntsev family kept the manuscript of the poem until the late 1960s, then passed it on to Zinaida Shakhovskoy.

  Spiresco: Kosta Spiresco, a Romanian violinist in Berlin who apparently drove his wife to suicide by abusing her physically, then escaped punishment and continued to perform and enjoy the admiring attention of other women. On 18 January 1927, VN and Mikhail Kaminka came to the restaurant where Spiresco worked, in order to administer their own punishment. VN, a sometime boxing coach, drubbed him, while Kaminka fought the orchestra (see VNRY, pp. 271–2).

  Letter of 3 November 1932

  Californian professor: The Berkeley professor Alexander Kaun.

  Zaytsev: Boris Konstantinovich Zaytsev (1881–1972), writer, translator and literary historian.

  and one of Aldanov’s relatives: Khodasevich, in his ‘Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal’ (‘Chamber-Courier’s Journal’) mentions all the people whom VN notes, adding as also present Ilya Fondaminsky and Yakov Borisovich Polonsky (1892–1951), a bibliographer and bibliophile, who co-edited an almanac of the Society of Friends of the Russian Book. Polonsky was the husband of Aldanov’s sister, Lyubov’ Aleksandrovna Polonsky (née Landau, 1893–1963).

  Hachette: French publisher, founded in Paris in 1826.

  whether Bunin would receive the Nobel Prize: Bunin did indeed receive the Nobel Prize in 1933.

  took him to pieces for The Cave: Peshchera, a novel being serialized in Sovremennye zapiski, it would be published in book form in two volumes, 1934 and 1936. V. Khodasevich, ‘Knigi i lyudi. Sovremennye zapiski, kn. 50’, Vozrozhdenie, 27 October 1932, p. 3. In the same review, Khodasevich praised the latest instalment of VN’s Kamera obskura.

  aparté: Fr. ‘aside.’

  Chukovsky: Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (1882–1969), literary critic and children’s writer.

  Kulisher: Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Kulisher (1890–1942), lawyer, historian, sociologist and journalist who worked for Poslednie novosti in Paris.

  Mme Damansky: Avgusta Filippovna Damansky (1877–1959), writer, poet and translator.

  interview in Poslednie novosti: A. Sedykh, ‘U. V. V. Sirina’. Poslednie novosti, 3 November 1932, p. 2.

  my poor little coat: Sedykh called VN’s suit ‘good quality but rather baggy’, adding that ‘in Paris almost no one wears such a mackintosh with a button-up lining’.

  ‘funny’: The word ‘funny’ is attributed to VN, who, responding to his interviewer’s question about the influence of German writers on him, allegedly said: ‘How funny! Yes, they’ve accused me of being influenced by German writers whom I do not know. Generally speaking, I read and speak German poorly.’

  his husband: Hermann Thieme.

  Tair: Tair (1920–35), a publishing company founded in Paris by the composer Sergey Vasilievich Rachmaninov (1873–1943). The company’s name took the first syllables of the names of the composer’s daughters, Tatyana and Irina, who were expected to run the company. Tair published music and music criticism as well as fiction (by, for instance, Ivan Shmelyov and Aleksey Remizov).

  Mme [Mlle?] Rachmaninov: Possibly Natalia Aleksandrovna Rachmaninov (née Satin, 1877–1951), the composer’s wife; more likely, though, it was one of his daughters, Tatyana Sergeevna Konyus (1907–61) or Irina Sergeevna Volkonsky (1903–69).

  Letter of 3–4 November 1932

  Plon: Plon, French publishing company founded in 1852.

  Œil de Dieu: Eye of God (1925), a novel by Franz Hellens (pen-name of Frédéric Van Ermengem, 1881–1972), a writer VN greatly admired and would consistently champion.

  Pozner: Vladimir Solomonovich Pozner (1905–92), poet and critic, who in 1932 or 1933 became a member of the French Communist Party.

  Ehrenburg: Ilya Grigorievich Ehrenburg (1891–1967), prolific poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and political commentator. Althou
gh a Soviet citizen, Ehrenburg lived and worked in Europe as a correspondent for Izvestia (1923–39).

  Shmelyov’s The Sun of the Dead: The novel Solntse myortvykh (The Sun of the Dead, 1923) by the Russian writer and religious thinker, Ivan Sergeevich Shmelyov (1873–1950); in its French translation, Ivan Chméliov, Le Soleil de la mort, translated by Denis Roche (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1929).

  Letter of 5 November 1932

  Candide: French literary and political weekly founded in Paris in 1924.

  ‘Terra’: ‘Terra Incognita’.

  Mme Lvovsky: Unidentified.

  the Paulhans. She’s: Presumably his first wife, Sala Prusak; he divorced her in 1933 to marry Germaine Pascal, with whom he had had an affair for many years.

  Bradley: Unidentified.

  Maklakov: Vasily Alekseevich Maklakov (1869–1957), former lawyer, politician, publicist, member of the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic party and deputy of the Second, Third and Fourth Dumas; in Paris, chair of the Russian Émigré Committee at the League of Nations.

  Avgust Isaakovich: Kaminka.

  Tsar Boris: Grand Prince Boris Vladimirovich Romanov (1877–1943), grandson of Alexander II.

  Natasha: Nathalie Nabokov.

  Letter 1 of 8 November 1932

  Gorky: Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov, pen-name Maksim Gorky (1868–1936), Russian writer, playwright and founder of Socialist Realism in literature. From 1921 to 1932 Gorky lived abroad, mostly in Sorrento, Italy.

  Camera … Sovremennye zapiski: To date Chs. 1–7 and 8–17 had been published in Sovremennye zapiski, 49 (May 1932) and 50 (October 1932) respectively. The rest of Chs. 17–26 and Chs. 27–36 would appear in issues 51 (February 1933) and 52 (May 1933) respectively.

  ‘Chorb’: From the collection VC.

  Max Eastman: American writer, poet, political activist and supporter of socialism (1883–1969).

  Bunin asked me to find him: In 1931 Bunin had asked VN and others to help him contact Eastman, whom he wanted to translate his novel Zhizn’ Arsen’eva (The Life of Arsen’ev, the first four parts published in 1927–9, the last part in 1939). See ‘V. V. Nabokov i I. A. Bunin. Perepiska’ (‘V. V. Nabokov and I. A. Bunin. Correspondence’), ed. R. Davis and Maxim Shrayer, S dvukh beregov. Russkaya literatura XX veka v Rossii i za rubezhom (Moscow: IMLI RAN, 2002), pp. 197–9, 214.