Vera (86 page)

219
“We did not know”: Interview with Robert Tischler, September 1, 1996.

220
“Véra Nabokov was”: Roberta Silman, letter to editor,
The Los Angeles Times
, August 7, 1977, 2.

221
The Subnormal Adolescent Girl:
LO cards, LOC.

222
“ruffled by a too robust”: LATH, 234.

223
pushed the envelope: Schimmel to author, November 28, 1996.

224
an attractive favorite student: Interview with Nagel.

225
the fugitive information: Interview with Stephen Jan Parker, November 13, 1996.

226
When his classes were: Interview with Ted Heine, January 23, 1996.

227
“No, Volodya” to “absolutely right”: Interview with Robert C. Howes, May 5, 1997.

228
intellectual partner: Interview with Dr. Zygmunt M. Tomkiewicz, August 27, 1996.

229
to jot it down: Trahan, 179. Appel, in Quennell, 17.

230
One student looked: Interview with Robert Howes. Also, Grynberg to VN, December 20, 1948.

231
tribute to his delivery: Interviews with Michaël Rubenstein, December 8, 1997, Klem.

232
laughing so hard: Interview with Wetzsteon. Hughes, interview text, 47.

233
switched to the page: Interview with Joanna Russ.

234
“rabbits out of textual”: Robert M. Adams, “Nabokov's Show,”
The New York Review of Books
, December 18, 1980, 61–63.

235
The pink shirt: Klem, “Prejudices and Particularities,”
The Bloomsbury Review
, January 1981. Similarly, interview with Joseph F. Martino, Jr., September 18, 1998. Klem interview.

236
Did he dress: Interview with Russ.

237
Nabokov's apparel: Schimmel to author, November 28, 1996. Similarly, Gould P. Colman to author (via Phil Macrae), September 12, 1996. Interview with Gregory Troubetzkoy (Harvard), February 1997.

238
“Once she smiled”: Klem,
Bloomsbury Review
.

239
three reasons why: Interview with DN, October 29, 1996.

240
“very straight, smooth-haired”: “Bachmann,” STORIES, 118.

241
“It was as if”: Interview with Dr. Martin Blinder, July 1996.

242
illiterate bootstraps: Interview with Blinder.

243
the most visible: Many testified to VN's having been supremely conscious of VéN's presence. Interview with E. Levin, October 7, 1996; similarly, Bruccoli, Carol Levine.

244
“Who is Sirin” to “his work”: Interview with Tanya Clyman.

245
Harvard students: Interview with Pedro Sanjuan, April 15, 1996. Also Trahan, 181.

246
eyes lit up: Interview with Isabel Kleigman, July 27, 1996.

247
“Ladies and gentlemen”: Interview with Kleigman, April 15, 1996.

248
“Do you have any”: Interview with Appel, August 28, 1996.

249
“But one is inclined”: Unpublished chapter of SM, LOC. See also PF, 28.

250
an oil well: VéN to Joan Daly, September 22, 1971, PW.

251
uneasy in the classroom: Interviews with Keegan, Richard Gregg, March 4, 1997. See also Harry Levin in Alexandrov,
Garland Companion
, 228.

252
Nabokov regularly dreamed: VéN to Darryl R. Turgeon, March 13, 1966.

253
“likes to be able”: Field, 1977, 247. “Nabokov likes to be able”: Viking corrections to Field, 411, VNA. As David Slavitt noted when he interviewed him for
Newsweek
in 1962, VN looked to VéN repeatedly as he spoke. To Slavitt the reason seemed clear: “It was as if even if I weren't getting some of these jokes, she was.” Interview with Slavitt, August 14, 1998.

254
“Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov”: VéN to Tischler, February 21, 1967.

255
“being destroyed by emperors”: LRL, 11.

256
“radiant presence”: LL, 97.

257
“cannot be discarded”: LRL, 43; GOGOL, 119.

263
as far as can be ascertained: Interview with DN, December 13, 1997.

1
“No one ever had to”: Interview with Elena Levin, June 6, 1995.

2
“with a certain deadliness”: Wilson,
Upstate
, 160. In
The Fifties
, 426, Wilson used the phrase to describe the tone in which VéN addressed the two men of letters giggling helplessly over
Histoire d'O
, which Wilson had brought along for VN.

3
intrusive moonlight: Interviews with Herbert and Jane Wiegandt, November 21, 1997; Lester Eastman, November 21, 1997.

4
“We never used”: VN to Wiegandt, February 13, 1953.

5
“Goethe” to “ever written”: Interview with Jenni Moulton, March 2, 1997.

6
how he could possibly: Interview with Alain Seznec, January 28, 1998.

7
“To your knowledge” to “Chateaubriand”: Demorest,
Arts and Sciences
4, no. 2 (Spring 1983). “You know, there are no German translations of world literature of any value whatever,” VN challenged another colleague, needless to say a German-born literature professor. See Lange,
Michigan Quarterly Review
, October 1986, 489.

8
“irritate the intelligent”: VN to Shakhovskoy, May 23, 1935, LOC.

9
Not only was Auden: Interview with James McConkey.

10
Jane Austen: Daiches, in
L'Arc
24, 65–66.

11
“Spousal censorship”: Carl R. Proffer,
The Widows of Russia
, 70.

12
“and therefore was amusing”: VéN diary.

13
counseled a little mercy: Interview with Dick Wimmer, December 1, 1997.

14
the home botany exam: Interview with Dmitri Ledkovsky, July 1996.

15
censoring the censoring: Willa Petschek,
The Observer
(London), May 30, 1976.

16
London theatre: RLSK, 85

17
“ ‘
Volodyal
' ”: Appel, in Quennell, 20. Similarly, Roberta Silman.

18
“teetered always”: Adams,
The New York Review of Books
, December 18, 1980. “For all of his familiarity with American mores, he often misread American manners,” concluded another colleague. Interview with M. H. Abrams, October 18, 1998.

19
“I am sorry to disappoint”: VéN to Howard S. Cresswell, March 20, 1953.

20
“show off her family”: VéN to Lena Massalsky, August 28, 1950, Massalsky family archive.

21
in speaking with Sonia: L. Massalsky to VéN, September 9, 1950.

22
“in another selfless”: Szeftel November 8, 1971, journal entry, cited in
Pniniad
, 128.

23
“Don't bother hiring him”: Interview with Ruth Schorer, August 25, 1996.

24
“Well all right”: Interview with Peter Kahn, August 29, 1996.

25
It was felt: Interviews with Frances Lange, September 12, 1996, Kitty Szeftel, August 15, 1996. Also Elena Levin.

26
respected but not universally liked: Interviews with Silman, Elwitt, Fowler, Kahn. Richard L. Leed to author, April 8, 1997; Steck to author, November 27, 1995.

27
shared Sonia's low opinion: VN to Shakhovskoy, c. 1938, LOC.

28
tucked rather inaccessibly: See Robert M. Adams,
The New York Review of Books
, January 30, 1992.

29
“Our only airline”: VéN to Peter de Peterson, May 25, 1958.

30
end in his expulsion: Bruneau to author, February 8, 1996.

31
playacting: Schimmel to author, November 1, 1996.

32
As for American schools: VéN to L. Massalsky, May 15, 1950, Massalsky family archive.

33
“I think Vera”: Blanche Peltenburg to VéN, November 1955.

34
“prosperous usurers”: See Frederic,
The New Exodus
, 19. In a letter to the
Cornell Daily Sun
, October 20, 1958, 4, VN insisted he was “strictly a Goldwin Smith man.”

35
“lyrical plaintiveness”: VN to Grynberg, December 16, 1944, Bakhm. He was speaking in particular, and privately, of Wilson. Earlier it had been “the spiritual tempest, the pulsing, the shining, dancing savagery, that evil and tenderness that drive us to God knows what heavens and depths.” VN in
Rul
, October 28, 1921.

36
“Amazing Americans!”: VéN diary, VNA.

37
“It's dangerous”: Interview with Keegan, January 15, 1998.

38
Vladimir never voted: Boyd interview with VéN, September 3, 1982, Boyd archive.

39
“the two McSenators” to “Dewey”: VéN to the
Cornell Daily Sun
, December 12, 1952.

40
“She also says”: VN diary entry, January 14, 1951, VNA.

41
“We both loved”: VN to Katharine White, January 4, 1953.

42
saw only propaganda: Alice Colby-Hall to author, April 9, 1997.

43
Fairbanks did not speak: VéN copy of Field, 1977, VNA.

44
impassioned defense: Interview with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., October 9, 1996.

45
“I suppose that McCarthy”: VéN to Mark Vishniak, February 19, 1955, Hoover.

46
firm measures were the only: VéN to Berkman, October 25, 1962.

47
“After all”: VéN to Vishniak, February 19, 1955, Hoover.

48
He reminded her that: Vishniak to VéN, February 23, 1955, VNA.

49
“I continue to consider” and “Enough”: VéN to Vishniak, February 27, 1955, Hoover.

50
principle informed all: VéN to Anna Feigin, February 14, 1963. Also, Boyd interview with VéN, March 16, 1982, Boyd archive; Boyd to author, June 14, 1997.

51
tore her check: Interview with DN, November 12, 1997.

52
“We spent two months”: VéN to HS, March 29, 1953.

53
printsipialnost:
cited in Abram Tertz cited in Seltzer, “Simon Dubnow: A Critical Biography of His Early Years,” 60.

54
cut-up liver: May Sarton,
The Fur Person
(New York: Norton, 1978), 7–9.

55
“on the verge”: VN to Wilson, May 3, 1953, NWL, 280.

56
a fat rattlesnake: VéN to Hessen, May 23, 1953, PC. Boyd interview with VéN, February 2, 1982, Boyd archive. See also, Levy,
The New York Times Magazine
, October 31, 1971, 20–41.

57
“St. George-Vladimir”: VéN to Rosemary Mizener, May 12, 1953.

58
“Moreover, Vladimir”: VéN to Alice James, May 17, 1953.

59
“mellow academic townlet”: LO, 179.

60
far preferred the green: VéN to Karpovich, June 17, 1953, Bakhm.

61
on Lance and Dmitri: In her letter to HS, February 23, 1952, PC, VéN noted that the old Bokes'

62
only son shares some of DN's idiosyncrasies. DN is “Lance” in VN to Aldanov, 1940 from Palo Alto, Bakhm.

63
“of melting light”: “Lance,” STORIES, 631.

64
offshore racing: His first boat was called
Vera I
, the second
Vera II
. “You could have called it ‘Lolita,' ” commented VN wistfully, lips pursed. Interview with DN, September 30, 1997.

65
“A parent's job”: VéN to HS, July 16, 1966.

66
“We like it much”: VéN to HS, July 31, 1953.

67
horror: Interview with Boyd, November 23, 1996.

68
no snakes in the neighborhood: VéN to HS, May 19, 1960.

69
“She liked guns”: Interview with DN, February 10, 1996.

70
“My wife has some”: VN to Alexander B. Klots, May 16, 1949. D. Barton Johnson sent on this letter.

71
“For protection while”: Tompkins County Courthouse records.

72
After the meal: Interviews with Jean-Jacques Demorest, Joseph Mazzeo, January 7, 1997. Bayonet Bob Ruebman served as general firearms consultant. I had more questions for him than I thought I would.

73
Nestled in the glove: Clarke,
Esquire
, July 1975.

74
a viewing of the gun and “She really had”: Interviews with Jason Epstein, September 24, 1996, and May 11, 1998. Interview with Barbara Epstein, September 17, 1996.

75
wholly unsurprised: Interview with Elena Levin, January 12, 1998.

76
“Véra, show him”: Interview with Saul Steinberg, January 17, 1996.

77
ripe with symbolism: Steinberg was not the only one; Humbert Humbert, too, evokes a comparison between a woman's purse and her genitals, LO, 62. See also LO, 216, for the original anti-Freudian's take on such symbolism.

78
Anna Karenina's handbag:
Cornell Magazine
, July-August 1997.

79
“You will perhaps”: VéN to Colette Duhamel, La Table Ronde, November 18, 1953.

80
December 1953: Nabokov slipped slightly in his afterword, “On a Book Entitled Lolita.” He remembered that he “finished copying the thing out in longhand in the spring of 1954, and at once began casting around for a publisher.” The search for a publisher continued through that year, when revisions continued, but an early typescript had been ready as of December 1953.

81
a final draft: VN wrote his sister of the translation “Véra and I made of
Conclusive Evidence.”
VN to HS, September 29, 1953, PC.

82
“V. asks me to jot”: VéN to the Hessens, December 6, 1953, PC.

83
“that his incognito be”: VéN to White, December 23, 1953, SL, 142–43.

84
“a time bomb”: VN to Laughlin, February 3, 1954, SL, 144.