Vera (83 page)

113
“Good Girl”: VN to VéN, October 20, 1942, VNA.

114
“dilly-dallying”: VN to Griselda Ohannessian, New Directions, January 29, 1942.

115
“not the best-looking”: VN to VéN, October 5, 1942, VNA.

116
“expecting a gentleman”: VN to VéN, October 5, 1942.

117
“Then again, only
humans”:
ENCHANTER, 11.

118
would have disappeared: VN to Hessen, December 1942, PC. VN to Aldanov, December 8, 1942, Bakhm.

119
“She still cannot manage”: VN to Laughlin, January 12, 1943.

120
“It is a very pleasant”: VN to Laughlin, April 9, 1942, SL, 40.

121
“presided as adviser”: SO, 105.

122
ind every one: Karpovich to VN, October 18, 1943, Bakhm.

123
overindulged in puns: VN to Roman Grynberg, October 10, 1944, Bakhm.

124
his own reflection: He had done so before and would be accused of doing so again, taken to task for “simply telling a tale of Nabokov in the mirror of Gogol.” Marc Slonim,
Novoe Russkoye Slovo
, November 12, 1944.

125
“Gogol was a strange”: GOGOL, 140.

126
“Artists are unusual”: VéN to Lisbet Thompson, October 29, 1964.

127
“I invent my own”: VN to Hessen, March 7, 1943, PC.

128
“as if it's not myself”: VN to Hessen, December 1942, PC. See also
The Last Word
(Wellesley College), April 19, 1943, 19–21.

129
“Wars pass”: VN to Wilson, December 13, 1943, Yale. Discussing Hitler's designs on Russia, he enlightened a
Stanford Daily
reporter (July 1, 1941): “Of course I'm not much interested in politics.”

130
The MCZ: Charles Klaus to author, March 7, 1996. Interview with Charles Remington, July 10, 1996.

131
“I love to play”: VN to his mother, April 29, 1921, VNA. This took some doing at the MCZ, which was filled with colorful characters. For Hessen VN described the eleven A.M. scene at the museum, where four scholars gathered on the steps for a cigarette, “a paleontologist, the curator of mollusks, the curator of reptiles, and Dr.
[sic]
Nabokov, all old men, except the doctor.” VN to Hessen, March 30, 1943, PC.

132
“An eccentric”: SO, 132.

133
hallway greetings: Interview with Kenneth Christiansen, August 11, 1996.

134
“Is this really”: Interview with Phyllis Smith Christiansen, August 10, 1996.

135
“not quite normal”: VN to Hessen, December 1942, PC.

136
glacial charms: Interview with Laughlin, July 27, 1995; interview with E. Levin, November 10, 1997.

137
edge of a cliff: Interview with Laughlin. See also “Ezra Pound Said Be a Publisher,”
The New York Times Book Review
, August 23, 1981, 13.

138
systematically defeating: VN to Hessen, July 1943, PC.

139
The John Downey encounters: Interview with John Downey, November 11, 1997.

140
“he really let himself”: GOGOL, 140.

141
“knowing that if I did”: Gerald Clarke,
Esquire
, July 1975, 69.

142
“Véra has had a serious”: VN to Wilson, January 3, 1944, NWL, 121.

143
“I, or rather Vera”: VN to Wilson, January 7, 1944, NWL, 123.

144
“acclimated”: VN to Jan Priel, March 17, 1946.

145
“I am devoting”: VN to Wilson, May 8, 1944, NWL, 134–35. Also VN to Grynberg, May 8, 1944, Bakhm.

146
“It's Sunday today”: VN to Hessen, May 8, 1944, PC.

147
“I have long since”: VN to Hessen, December 10, 1943, PC.

148
less willing victims: Interview with Margaret Stephens Humpstone.

149
portion of his tuition: VéN to Goldenweiser, July 1, 1958, Bakhm; to Barbetti, January 28, 1946.

150
returned from leave: Affidavit for Goldenweiser, Bakhm.

151
“was incompatible”: VéN to HS, December 17, 1945, PC. She received some compensation from the Department of Foreign Languages in 1947 as well.

152
Harvard library position: VéN to HS, April 6, 1947, PC.

153
promising to write: See J. D. O'Hara, “Fondling the Details,”
The Nation
, November 8, 1980. O'Hara to VéN, February 9, 1980, VNA.

155
Sparing her husband: Boyd interview with VéN, February 25, 1982, Boyd archive.

156
Together the two: VN to Wilson, January 25, 1947, NWL, 182.

157
“Volodia, would it be”: Cited in Boyd, 1991, 109.

158
“A little tartly”: Interview with J. D. O'Hara, September 11, 1996.

159
“My husband wishes”: VéN to Mavis McIntosh, October 27, 1947.

160
remembered him fulminating: Interview with C. C. Sprague, May 20, 1997.

161
allegedly on the grounds: See Parry,
The Texas Quarterly
, Spring 1971.

162
Vladimir's ill humor: Interview with Kay Rice, August 13, 1996.

163
“I think he would have”: VéN to Miss Henneberger, February 5, 1944.

164
Rumor around the VOA: Interview with Helen Yakobson, November 29, 1996.

165
“Since you are asking”: VN to Vaudrin, November 6, 1947, VNA.

166
love to “Sonya”: Wilson to VN, October 26, 1944, Yale.

167
“Tell it to Véra”: Boyd interview with Sylvia Berkman, April 9, 1983, Boyd archive.

168
“Véra sends you”: VN to the Hessens, May 1944, PC.

169
“My husband has turned”: VéN to Emily Morison, Knopf, February 12, 1945, HR.

170
Vladimir accidentally: VéN to Max Pfeffer, March 20, 1947, VNA.

171
“Véra is wonderful”: Wilson to Elena Thornton, October 4, 1946, Yale. Lewis Dabney unearthed this letter.

172
Anglicisms were creeping: VéN to Barbetti, May 13, 1947.

173
crowded faculty party: James McConkey to author, August 12, 1996.

174
similar tastes from the beginning: Boyd to author, December 14, 1997.

175
“Now why did I marry”: Rolf to Tenggren, c. January 21, 1961, PC.

176
“Good Heavens”: Interview with DN, November 12, 1997.

177
psoriasis on his elbow: VN to Hessen, October 10, 1944, PC.

178
she would forgive him: Wilson to VN, January 25, 1947, Yale.

179
what Stalin thought: See
Wellesley Magazine
, February 1948, 179–80. For a portrait of VN at Wellesley, see also Barbara Breasted and Noëlle Jordan, “Vladimir Nabokov at Wellesley,”
Wellesley Magazine
, Summer 1971, 22–26.

180
fought like cocks: VN to Hessen, October 10, 1944, PC.

181
Nabokov divided the Russian: VN to Vladimir Zenzinov, March 17, 1945, Bakhm.

182
difficult even for Wilson: See Jeffrey Meyers, “The Bulldog and the Butterfly,”
The American Scholar
, Summer 1994, 379–402.

183
“When I have to choose”: VN to Rev. Gardiner Day, December 21, 1945.

184
“even more catastrophic”: VN to Marinels, May 22, 1946, SL, 68.

185
hate for the Germans: VN to HS, October 25, 1945, PC.

186
“I don't understand”: VéN to Barbetti, January 1, 1947.

187
“knowing the Germans”: VéN to Col. Joseph I. Greene, January 14, 1948, SL, 80.

188
call a duel: Boyd interview with E. Allan, March 29, 1983, Boyd archive.

189
charges of racism: VN to Aldanov, January 21, 1942, Bakhm. In 1953, he refused even to review her biography of her father. VN to
The Yale Review
, September 22, 1953, VNA.

190
The accommodations: VN to Phyllis Smith Christiansen, July 18, 1946.

191
“And what would happen”: VN to Hessen, n.d. In VN's letter to Wilson of July 18, 1946, NWL, 170, the “nervous exhaustion” became “practically a ‘nervous breakdown.' ” For a later, enhanced version of what was presumably the same New Hampshire episode, see ANL, 436.

192
“We had a few”: VéN to Field, September 20, 1968.

193
work precluded any: VéN to Barbetti, January 1, 1947.

194
“She treated him like”: Verna Irwin Marceau to author, December 7, 1995. Interview of May 1, 1996.

195
FBI investigation: FBI file number 121–10141, report of June 26, 1948.

196
“Véra and I watch”: VN to HS, November 26, 1945, SL, 58.

197
“She had so”: Boyd interview with Berkman, April 9, 1983, Boyd archive.

198
Isabel Stephens assumed: Interviews with M. S. Humpstone, August 20, 1996, Dave Stephens, August 19, 1996.

199
“She was much too busy”: Interview with E. Levin, June 6, 1995.

200
“slice, chop, twist”: VN to Laughlin, August 8, 1942, SL, 42.

201
“intervestibular connecting”: SM, 144. The word for which he was searching was “diaphragm,” according to Sue Pasccucci, New York Transit Museum.

202
“I hope this helps”: VéN to Charles B. Timmer, December 20, 1949.

203
she was disappointed: VéN to Barbetti, January 1, 1947.

204
strongly recommended: VéN to Barbetti, May 13, 1947.

205
Evelyn Waugh: VéN to Barbetti, January 1, 1947.

206
“She won't let her”: Wilson to Elena Thornton, October 4, 1946, Yale.

207
to inhale his scent, and “We shall fight”: VN to Hessen, July 17, 1945, PC.

208
felt wretched: VN to Zenzinov, June 17, 1945, Bakhm.

209
“Nothing like it”: VN to Wilson, June 17, 1945, NWL, 154.

210
torment her: VN to Wilson, June 9, 1944, Yale.

211
“In fact he does not”: VéN to Betty Cage,
View
, March 24, 1946, Ford papers, Yale.

212
“I am afraid” and “He also thinks”: VéN to Edith E. Dana, March 19, 1947.

213
“Incidentally I vomited”: VN to Wilson, June 9, 1944, Yale.

214
“devices of shadography”: BEND, 120. Gradus proves by contrast an uncertain “shadowgrapher,” PF, 180. Lolita makes “shadowgraphs” at camp, LO, 114. In the 1970s VN warned an interviewer that he could expect little from their talk but a “shadowgraph,” SL, 551.

216
grew taller: VéN to HS, April 6, 1947, PC.

217
“Volodya is always”: VéN to the Hessens, December 29, 1945, PC.

218
“shrunken dwarf apartment”: VN to Grynberg, September 1, 1948, Bakhm.

219
“At least I know”: Lewis Carroll,
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
(New York: Signet, 1960), 47.

220
“literally born again”: Amy Kelly to the Nabokovs, October 30, 1945.

221
“generally inspirational”: Karpovich to Ernest J. Simmons, April 20, 1942, Bakhm.

222
“I spent most of”: Interview with Harriet Dorothy Rothschild, March 11, 1997.

223
“I know I always”: Interview with Jocelyn Rogers Jerry, July 1997.

224
“We were all”: Interview with Jean H. Proctor, August 8, 1997.

225
being taken care of: Interview with Rosemary Farkas Meyerson. Also H. D. Rothschild.

226
“they noticed a face”:
Wellesley College News
, October 17, 1946.

227
“He was the only man”: Interview with Mary Pryor Black Lindley, February 1997. For a colorful account of VN at Wellesley, see Naomi B. Pascal, “A Reminiscence of Nabokov at Wellesley,”
The Nabokovian
, Fall 1995, 7–10.

228
Could he trouble: Interview with Jane Sharp, March 1997.

229
Merrily he informed: Interview with Jeannie Rudolph Pechin, July 20, 1997.

230
the butterfly visit: Interview with Jane E. Curtis, March 7, 1997.

231
Few of the girls: Pechin, Betty Comtois. Also Caroline C. Hendrickson, interview of July 10, 1996, Ruth D. Stoddard, August 13, 1997, Jane E. Curtis.

232
watched him adoringly: Interview with Marian McC. Kuhns, April 8, 1997. Also Sharp, Pechin.

233
best-looking girls: Interviews with Kitty Helm Hartnett, Alma Weisburg, Rothschild, Comtois. “He always needed to have his harem around,” quipped one.

234
“Ah, Miss Rogers”: Interview with Jocelyn Rogers Jerry, July 1997. The ring was filched for Betty Bliss,
Pnin
, 152.

235
“He definitely flirted”: Interview with Rothschild. Similarly, Comtois, Pologe, Weisberg, interview with Nancy Ignatius, July 7, 1997.

237
“Do you have any idea”: Wellesley alumna to author, November 13, 1995.

238
“I took a course”: Interviews with Katherine Reese Peebles, December 6, 1996, February 7, 1997. See her fine portrait of the professor in
We
, December 1943, 5. Interview with Priscilla Rasmussen, February 10, 1997.

240
“He did like young”: Interview with Peebles, February 7, 1997.

241
“I was a perceptive”: Interview with Peebles, November 12, 1997.

242
“avid eavesdropping”: Dr. Glen Holland, cited in Polly Kemp, “It Is Lolita Who Is Famous, Not I,”
Stanford Magazine
, September 1992, 52.

244
“Then can you read”: Interview with Peebles, December 6, 1996.

245
apparent helplessness: Interview with Grace Pologe, February 26, 1997. Similarly, interview with Aileen Ward, November 1, 1995.

246
“Do you realize”: Interview with Nancy W. Ignatius.