Vera (85 page)

107
Dorothy Wordsworth: Elizabeth Hardwick,
Seduction and Betrayal
(New York: Random House, 1974), 148.

108
On reading the first half: Guadanini letter of July 27, 1959, probably to her mother, PC.

109
“this exquisite”: Draft pages, SM, LOC. “That slow-motion, silent explosion of love” (SM, 297) is in “ ‘That in Aleppo Once …' ” “that vast silent explosion,” STORIES, 557.

110
“In the hush of pure”: SM, 309.

111
“doing an amazing” and “Seen and approved”: VN to Hessen, April 17, 1950, PC. VN made the same report to Wilson, on the same date.

112
“absolute lucidity”: Enclosed with VN to John Fischer, March 16, 1950, HR.

113
“With one thing and”: VN to John Selby, Rinehart, January 17, 1951.

114
the Hemingway translation: VN to Chekhov Publishing, November 10, 1954.

115
“Why don't you translate”: Alvin Toffler,
Playboy
, March, 1964, 44.

116
“Could you not send”: VéN to Hessen, September 24, 1950, PC.

117
“but the author found”: VéN to HS, January 1, 1951, PC.

118
“Fluorescent Tears”: SM material, LOC.

119
The two buried “v”s: VN to H. Levin, February 18, 1951. Also to Grynberg, December 11, 1950, Bakhm.

120
“It Is Me”: VN to VéN, February 2, 1936, VNA.

121
“He is not interested”:
The New York Times
, February 23, 1951. Nicholas Nabokov's
Old Friends and New Music
had been published in January.

122
“In the course of”: VN to Hessen, February, 1951, PC.

123
“But you did”: Boyd interview with VéN, January 13, 1980, Boyd archive.

124
“Incidentally, I glanced”: H. Levin to VN, March 5, 1951.

125
“The icicles”: VN diary, February 3, 1951, VNA. (The line is in Russian.) Rarely have melting icicles been put to such imaginative—and, to White, such abstruse—effect.

126
“dismal financial”: VN to White, January 28, 1950, SL, 96.

127
precarious monetary state: Interview with DN, December 4, 1997.

128
“Moreover, I am engaged”: VN to Pat Covici, Viking, November 12, 1951.

129
“Get away” and “We are keeping”: Interview with Keegan, November 14, 1997.

130
She did so again to “She was responsible”: SO, 20, 105. VéN could sound foggy on this subject, although she never cavilled with written accounts, even when she quibbled with all else on those pages. VN did not include his wife in the first account of the attempted ignition, written in 1956. (“On a Book Entitled Lolita,” ANL, 312.) There appear to have been multiple rescues; there was certainly no incinerator on Seneca Street.

131
She feared that: “Sono stata io a salvare Lolita,”
Epoca
, November 22, 1959.

132
“No, you're not”: Field, 1986, 287. Also Arthur Mizener,
Cornell Alumni News
, September 1977, 56.

133
one uncomfortable colleague: Interview with Alison Jolly, May 20, 1995.

134
“Right now there's”: VéN to HS, March 7, 1948, PC.

135
“intellectual visa checkpoint”: Field, 1977, 34.

136
“My wife, of course”:
Radcliffe News
, November 21, 1947.

137
“Go to sleep”: Cannac,
Russkaya Mysl
, December 29, 1977.

138
“We had no close”: VéN to Field, October 20, 1968.

139
boasted regularly: Jean Bruneau to author, February 8, 1996; interview of July 27, 1996.

140
“dreadfully drafty”: SO, 230.

141
“One was a professor”: VéN to HS, May 18, 1951.

142
“Remember, it is not”: Marc Szeftel,
Cornell Alumni News
, November 1980.

143
“You know, Véra”: Interview with Elena Levin, June 16, 1995.

144
“Véra always sides”: Wilson,
Upstate
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1971), 160–61. In Wilson's
The Fifties
, Edel, ed., 425 the line reads: “Vera invariably sides with him [VN] and becomes slightly vindictive against people who argue with him.”

145
Generally she had little: Interview with DN, December 5, 1997.

146
a long, “newsy” letter: VéN to Lena Massalsky, February 10, 1959.

147
“I would like to call”: L. Massalsky to VéN, January 29, 1959.

148
one student thought: Edouard C. Emmet to author, March 6, 1997.

149
“There are two great”: Interview with Anthony Winner, n.d. For additional memories of the Harvard year I am indebted to Robert J. Blattner, Edouard C. Emmet, John B. Forbes, Norman Friedman, Stephen P. Gibert, William Hedges, Herbert Howard, Saul Magram, Arthur Nebolsine, David Osnos, Ivan Pouchine, Pedro Sanjuan, Franklin D. Thompson, Gregory Troubetzkoy.

150
did not universally charm: Interview with Franklin D. Thompson, February 1997. Similarly, Gregg, Massey, Winner.

151
how he would have written: Interview with Irving Massey, March 2, 1997. VN later recalled with delight having dismembered the book before hundreds of students in Memorial Hall, SO, 103.

152
Another disapproved: Interview with Winner.

153
And was it truly necessary: Interview with Richard Gregg, March 4, 1997.

154
revealing only late: Interview with Myron Laseron, March 15, 1997.

155
“V. is giving
grandiose”:
VéN to Hessen, March 22, 1952, PC.

156
“he is obviously taking”: VéN to HS, April 13, 1952.

157
official enrollment: Harvard University archives.

158
“a gutter cat”: Boyd interview with VéN, June 19, 1982, Boyd archive.

159
“When V. reads and writes”: VéN to HS, April 13, 1952.

160
“He was much thinner”: VéN to May Sarton, June 19, 1952.

161
“But you must”: Interview with E. Emmet, May 9, 1997.

162
made him repeat: Arthur Mizener,
Cornell Alumni News
, September 1977, 56.

163
Langer was a punctual: Interview with DN, November 1, 1996.

164
Reasons for attendance: VN to Wilson, January 16, 1952, NWL 268. Boyd interview with VéN, December 2, 1979, Boyd archive; Karpovich to VN, February 21, 1954.

165
“the double-dotted”: VN to Bart Winer, Bollingen Press, 1963, LOC.

166
“Now without Russian”: VN to Hessen, June 2, 1951, PC.

167
As early as: Interview with Buxbaum, May 6, 1996.

168
The Cornell recollections were a tidy echo chamber of overlapping memories, a comfort to the biographer but difficult to acknowledge properly. Where possible I have separated out individual quotes but am indebted as well to the following Cornellians for their descriptions of the Nabokovs' routine: Laura T. Almquist, Arlene Alpert, Robert Bamberg, Leland Beck, Dr. Martin Blinder, Harry Bliss, Doris Nagel, Donald R. Brewer, Joe Buttino, Karin Cattarulla, Tanya Clyman, Peter Czap, William Elder Doll, Edwin Eigner, Marcia Elwitt, Elisavietta Ritchie Farnsworth, Stephen Fineman, Roberta Foy, Barton Friedman, Harry Gelman, Dorothy Gilbert, Roslyn Bakst Goldman, Ronald Goodison, Ted Heine, Renie Adler Hirsch, Steve Hochman, Richard Isaac, Isabel Kleigman, Peter Klem, Leighton Klevana, Stanley Komaroff, Edward L. Krawitt, M. Travis Lane, Dr. David C. Levin (of the “Gray Eagle” school), Carol Levine, Joan Macmillan (from whom comes the chalk dust allergy), Joseph F. Martino, Jr., Hilda Minkoff, Bill and Myra Orth, Joanna Russ, Kirk Sale, Rona Schneider, Robert Scholes, Marvin Shapiro, Roberta Silman, Penny Sindell (especially for the ventriloquism theory), Janet Sperber, Ron Sukenick, Bob Tapert, Robert G. Tischler, Frank Tretter, Darryl R. Turgeon, Marty Washburn, Ross Wetzsteon, Dick Wimmer, Marjorie and Stefan Winkler, Sandra Wittow (for the Seeing Eye dog hypothesis), Richard Wortman. See also Robert M. Adams, “Nabokov's Show,”
The New York Review of Books
, December 18, 1980; Elizabeth Welt Trahan, “Laughter from the Dark: A Memory of Vladimir Nabokov,”
The Antioch Review
, Spring 1985; Appel, “Remembering Nabokov,” in Quennell, 11–33; Ross Wetzsteon,
The Village Voice
, November 30, 1967; Peter Klem, “Prejudices and Particularities,”
Bloomsbury Review
, January 1981.

169
Her eyes: Interview with Charles Klaus, April 1996.

170
She lingered: Interviews with Peter Czap, August 28, 1996, Ross Wetzsteon, August 10, 1995.

171
administrative affairs: Interview with Tanya Clyman, July 1996.

172
“Oh, yes, yes, yes”: Interview with Dorothy Gilbert, March 15, 1996.

173
sophisticated diagrams: See Trahan,
The Antioch Review
, Spring 1985, 175–82.

174
“rubberized tweed”: Interview with Klem, September 25, 1996. In the published version the outfit is “waterproof tweed,” LRL, 219.

175
“This monogrammatic”: LRL, 175.

176
the mask dropped: Interview with Robert Tischler, September 1, 1996.

177
In some courses: Interview with Roslyn Bakst Goldman, August 22, 1996.

178
proved more memorable: Interview with Wetzsteon, August 10, 1995.

179
“quite a performance”: Interview with Henry Steck, November 27, 1995. Similarly, Peter Czap.

180
as legendary: Wetzsteon,
The Village Voice
, November 30, 1967. Repr. in Appel and Newman, 240–46.

181
“Everybody was fascinated”: Alison Bishop, in Gibian and Parker, eds.,
The Achievements of Vladimir Nabokov
, 217.

182
One student winced: Trahan,
The Antioch Review
, Spring 1985, 179. Similarly, interview with Anthony Winner, February 1996. (Winner observed the act at Harvard.)

183
Gray Eagle: David C. Levin to author, October 10, 1995.

184
the Countess: Interview with Keegan, January 12, 1997.

185
“the most beautiful”: Interview with Alison Bishop Jolly, May 20, 1995.

186
a countess: Interview with Marvin Shapiro, October 22, 1996. The German princess is from Joanna Russ, interview of May 6, 1996.

187
“subtly endowed”: RLSK, 80.

188
“But who is going”: Appel to VéN, December 20, 1984, VNA.

189
geniality might register: Interview with Wetzsteon, August 10, 1995.

190
Initially she waded: Interview with Keegan, November 14, 1997.

191
adding a panegyric: Interview with Dick Wimmer, December 1, 1997.

192
“I estimate that I shall”: VN to William Sale, October 26, 1953.

193
“my assistant, Mrs. V”: VN to Diane Adams, June 14, 1954.

194
complaining that he had: VN to Grynberg, November 6, 1953, LOC.

195
He spent five days: Henry Steck to author, October 9, 1995. Interview with Steck, November 27, 1995.

196
“What was the pattern”: M. Travis Lane to author, May 16, 1996. Interview with Lane, July 25, 1996.

197
“
We
thought you”: Interview with Russ, May 6, 1996.

198
“I have written” to “some difficulty”: Interview with Dorothy Gilbert, March 29, 1996.

199
“he leaned over”: Interview with Steve Katz, October 24, 1996. See also Katz,
Contemporary Authors Autobiography
, vol. 14, 165–66.

200
“way, way over”: Franklin D. Thompson to author, March 3, 1997.

201
“I write you while”: VN to Hessen, October 22, 1956, PC.

202
beneath his dignity: Interview with Carol Levine.

203
He grumbled: VN to Hessen, May 3, 1957, PC.

204
“I am too little”: LRL, 98

205
“a woman full of”: Lecture drafts. The words “Dostoyevsky was proclaimed a great writer mainly by philosophers or philosophizing critics whose opinions on literature should never be quite trusted” were, among others, hers.

206
“not literature but”: Osip Mandelstam, 114.

207
“He savored words”: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to author, September 3, 1996.

208
appeared superficial: Interview with Charles Klaus. Roberta Silman (interview of May 6, 1996) was discouraged from taking the course. Similarly, Rona Schneider, Marcia Elwitt. Interviews with Kirk Sale, October 21, 1996; Doug Fowler, August 1996; Edwin Eigner, July 31, 1998.

209
how to read: Some students knew this. interview with Myra Orth, October 29, 1996. Similarly, Dr.

210
Doris Nagel.

211
“on willingness for”: LRL, 147.

212
lit up a cigarette: Interview with Matthew J. Bruccoli, April 18, 1995.

213
“as good a piece”: VéN copy of Lange,
Michigan Quarterly Review
, October 1986, 482, VNA.

214
he was unable: Interview with Gold, June 22, 1995.

215
turning on a light: Interview with Wimmer.

216
nervous little dance: Interview with Donald R. Brewer, January 25, 1998. Stephen Fineman remembered VN appealing to VéN to work her magic on the dais light, which resisted him. Interview of September 20, 1998. To another student he explained that all went technologically awry if he turned on a television himself. Interview with Nagel.

217
“Of course you remember”: Interview with Robert Ruebman, April 9, 1996. James McConkey to author, August 12, 1996.

218
amphitheater lights: Appel, “Remembering Nabokov,” Quennell, 18.