Vera (87 page)

85
“In an atmosphere of”: VN to Wilson, June 20, 1953, NWL, 282.

86
five granddaughters: White read the novel only in March 1957, while one of the “potential nymphets” was visiting. It made her shudder. (White to VN, March 25, 1957, BMC.) She did not read the manuscript when VéN delivered it for two reasons: She was given only the weekend to do so, during which she was entertaining; she did not feel she could in good faith conceal the material from Shawn. In light of Covici's opinion that the book was pornographic, she had already warned VéN that she did not feel qualified to offer an opinion on U.S. publication as she was personally unacquainted with the laws governing obscenity. Nor did she feel comfortable guaranteeing VN total anonymity, at home or at the office. Note to files, White archive; White to VN, February 1, 1954, BMC.

87
“I can't believe”: VéN to HS, February 28, 1957.

88
“Would we like”: VN to White, April 4, 1957, SL, 215.

89
“unpleasantness” and “In any case”: VéN to HS, November 12, 1955, PC. The Nabokovs were slow to send copies of LO to both HS and Kirill Nabokov, VN's brother. Neither knew even the name of the volume's publisher in January of 1956; both were clamoring to read the book. As
for Sikorski's son, HS reassured VéN that she had nothing to fear: His English was not yet good enough. HS to VéN, January 13, 1956, Cornell.

90
“reality always lies” and “in her mind”: Proffer,
Widows of Russia
, 47.

91
“V is afraid that Lolita”: VéN to HS, January 12, 1956.

92
“I am very fond”: VéN addition to VN to Wilson, March 8, 1946, NWL, 165.

93
had not yet met him: Richard Wilbur to author, February 20, 1998.

94
left her indifferent: VéN to A. Barbetti, May 13, 1947.

95
“But it is a great”:
VéN to HS, January 12, 1956.

96
“legally binding”: VN to Pat Covici, October 14, 1952.

97
“up to his chin”: VéN to Wilson, April 24, 1955, NWL, 293.

98
“the novel about H.H.”: VéN to Wallace Brockway, June 5, 1954.

99
“My husband has”: VéN to Doussia Ergaz, Clarouin Agency, August 6, 1954.

100
even more alarmed: VéN to HS, August 5, 1954.

101
“fiasco”: VN to Wilson, July 30, 1954, NWL, 285.

102
“never found” to “try and stay”: VéN to Gordon Lacy, August 23, 1954.

103
“a second-rate”: VéN to Laughlin, July 20, 1954. Similarly, to HS, August 5, 1954.

104
“is a dismal hole”: VN to Wilson, July 30, 1954, NWL, 285.

105
“She's a dreadful”: Interview with Otto Pitcher, August 29, 1995.

106
“hurtling in pursuit”: DN to Boyd, August 20, 1987, VNA.

107
“How can you say”: Interview with DN, January 28, 1998.

108
Mount Sinai Hospital: Interview with Mrs. Arthur Dallos, February 6, 1998. VN diary.

109
“Keep track” to “these thoughts”: VéN to Lisbet Thompson, October 1, 1961.

110
black magic: VéN to HS, January 10, 1949.

111
liver trouble: Among others, VN to H. Levin, September 5, 1954, Houghton Library.

112
“in a pitiful state”: VN to Wilson, September 5, 1954, NWL, 287.

113
Roger Straus: Straus remembers the manuscript having come to him directly from Wilson, although the correspondence suggests otherwise. Interview with Roger W. Straus, January 30, 1998.

114
“in his right mind” and “from various”: Straus to VN, November 11, 1954. See also, Straus letter to the editor,
The New York Times Book Review
, July 3, 1988.

115
He admitted: Straus to VéN, November 29, 1954.

116
“The poor darling”: Interview with Bowden Broadwater, September 1996.

117
“It's repulsive”: Interview with Jason Epstein, May 11, 1998.

118
“Did you read his”: Wilson to Grynberg, September 28, 1955, LOC.

119
Elena Levin suspected, and the Levins' reading: Interviews with Elena Levin, June 6, 1995, February 20, 1998. The Levins' daughter was born in 1941; Helen Wilson in 1948.

120
a Dorothy Parker: Diment was the first to note the coincidence,
Pniniad
, 60–61.

121
“a yelp”: VN to Maxwell, August 26, 1955.

122
firmly reassured him: White to VN, August 31, 1955.

123
failed tribute to
Fanny:
Wilson to Louise Bogan, March 22, 1946,
Letters on Literature and Politics
, 437. Wilson says the same: Field, 1986, 300.

124
“That the passion” to “Without suggesting”: Epstein reader's report, PC.

125
“The four American”: LO, 313.

126
Nabokov later claimed: LO, 314. There is no evidence whatever for the claim.

127
“If only everything”: VéN to HS, January 29, 1955.

128
“Just think of all”: VéN to Berkman, September 7, 1956.

129
“I suppose it will”: VN to Wilson, February 19, 1955, Yale.

130
“one would not dare”: Ergaz to VN, August 24, 1954, Glenn Horowitz collection.

131
Even the Karpoviches: Karpovich to Anna Feigin, January 26, 1955.

132
“I do have”: VN to Chekhov Publishing, May 6, 1952.

133
The agent of providence: See John de St. Jorre's delightful
Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and Its Writers
.

134
“I felt I had” to “respectable”: Maurice Girodias,
Unejournéesur la terre
, Vol. II,
Lesjardins d'éros
, 294. The first volume of the memoir
(Une journée sur la terre
, Vol. I,
L'Arrivée
) appeared in different form as
The Frog Prince
(New York: Crown, 1980). Also unpublished Girodias memoir pages, Gelfman Girodias, “Pornologist on Mt. Olympus,”
Playboy
, April 1961.

135
second and third readers: Interviews with Muffie Wainhouse, January 29, 1998; Miriam Worms, June 18, 1996; Eric Kahane, June 12, 1996.

136
“If the publisher”: VN to Ergaz, May 6, 1955. Having agreed to attach his name to the work, VN got cold feet several weeks later, as the contract was negotiated. “J'aurais, comme je vous le disais, certainement préféré de publier sous mon nom de plume. N'accordez donc l'usage de mon nom que si l'éditeur en fait une condition absolue,” he advised Ergaz on May 24. The matter was settled when Girodias advised that he held absolutely to VN's signing the work with his own name.

137
“I queried him”: Morris Bishop to Alison Bishop, May 18, 1955, Bishop family papers. Interviews with Alison Bishop Jolly, May 20, 1995, Louise Boyle, September 10, 1996, Robert M. Adams, October 13, 1996.

138
Neither author nor publisher: See Girodias,
Une journée
, II, 297.

139
one's idiot child: Interview with Robert Langbaum, June 24, 1997.

140
“It's full of pepper”: VN to DN, April 23, 1957, VNA.

141
shared her fears: Boyd interview with Alison Bishop, April 14, 1983, Boyd archive.

142
same vehemence: Caryn James, “Their Most Regrettable Character,”
The New York Times Book Review
, May 6, 1984, 34–37.

143
“moral turpitude”: Edmund Wilson to Helen Muchnic, August 18, 1955, in Wilson,
Letters on Literature and Politics
, 577. The words were most likely Morris Bishop's. White also remembered that VN worried he would lose his job, 1977 note to file, BMC.

144
“He was happy”: VéN to Berkman, July 5, 1955.

145
Ithaca Public Library: Boyd interview with Alison Bishop, April 14, 1983, Boyd archive.

146
“nostalgic longing”: VéN to Berkman, summer 1955.

147
“which you will need” to “
by mail
”: VéN to DN, July 1, 1955.

148
“If anyone wants”: Berkman to VéN, June 27, 1955. Also, Boyd interview with Augusta Jaryc, April 14, 1983; Boyd interview with Berkman, April 9, 1983, Boyd archive. Berkman to VéN, October 1, 1954.

149
“has assisted Véra”: VN to Wilson, August 14, 1956, NWL, 300. Negotiated by Véra, the contract was between Doubleday and Dmitri.

150
“I have finished”: VN to H. Levin, September 14, 1956, Houghton.

151
“Last year”: VéN to Amy Kelly, September 18, 1956.

152
“We have just”: VéN to Elena Levin, June 24, 1956, PC.

153
“Instead of taking”: VéN to DN, June 8, 1956.

154
“each of which is really”: VN to Natalia Peterson, December 18, 1955.

155
stimulating effect: Wilson to Muchnic, in Wilson,
Letters on Literature and Politics
, August 18, 1955. Cf. the account of a later visit,
Upstate
, 159. Wilson remained flabbergasted that Vladimir considered LO his best book in any language, Wilson to Struve, June 21, 1957.

156
Wilson happily confided: Wilson to Grynberg, September 28, 1955, LOC. “I was glad to have an opportunity to renew my good relations with him and get to like him again” were the actual words.

157
“My mistake”: VéN copy of Harry Levin,
Memories of the Moderns
(New York: New Directions, 1980), 215, VNA.

158
“The only thing”: VéN to Berkman, summer 1955.

159
“As one of us”: Epstein to VN, July 13, 1956.

160
“Sheer unrestrained pornography”: John Gordon,
The Sunday Express
, January 29, 1956.

161
He had himself: Edward de Grazia,
Girls Lean Back Everywhere
(New York: Random House, 1992), 257. De Grazia's is an eminently lucid guide to the publishing difficulties surrounding LO, among other volumes.

162
“lewd and libertine”: VN to Covici, March 29, 1956, SL, 185.

163
“V & V Inc.”: VéN to DN, March 30, 1967, VNA.

164
lovely cottage: Alison Bishop had located the rental, though she worried it might be too isolated for the Nabokovs. “No fear of solitude; the only question is whether food is obtainable in Mt. Carmel. Véra doesn't want to live on canned goods,” Morris Bishop advised his wife. Bishop to Alison Bishop, May 14, 1955, Cornell.

165
“Another busy” to “three months”: VéN to Kelly, September 18, 1956.

166
washing machine repairman: Boyd interview with VéN, January 9, 1985, Boyd archive.

167
“Since he is working”: VéN to HS, December 31, 1956.

168
“Yes, of course”: VéN to HS, February 28, 1957.

169
she grumbled: VéN to HS, February 11, 1958.

170
“a lovely row”: VéN to Berkman, February 20, 1957.

171
“How persistently”: PF, 79.

172
“loves to lose”: Bishop, cited in Michael Scammell unpublished pages, PC.

173
The Anchor Review
: The excerpt was chosen in consultation with Doubleday's lawyers. VN and VéN were thrilled with the presentation.

174
about little girls: Interview with Barbara Epstein, September 17, 1996. See also Tom Turley,
Niagara Falls Gazette
, January 11, 1959. At the same time a very proper German academic, Dr. Frederick Kohner, wrote a novel about a teenage girl that America embraced as wholesome and amusing. To capture the patois of the bikini-and-bobby-sox set for
Gidget
(1958), he eavesdropped on his daughter's phone conversations, taking notes from the extension in the kitchen.

175
neat carbonic tribute: VéN to Doubleday, March 31/April 1, 1957.

176
“I wonder if you”: VéN to Epstein, January 16, 1957.

177
“albino camels”: VN to White, April 4, 1957, SL, 216.

178
Véra heard only: VéN to HS, February 11, 1958.

179
Siamese cat: Interview with Ruth Sharp, January 23, 1998.

180
mouse-tennis and “Do you think”: Doris Nagel to parents, February 27, 1957, PC.

181
distasteful subject: See for example William James to VN, June 22, 1956.

182
fretted over the subject: Interview with Alison Jolly, May 20, 1995; Jolly to author, November 6, 1996.

183
“I would not like”: Szeftel,
Cornell Magazine
, November 1980.

184
on Pnin and Szeftel: See Galya Diment,
Pniniad
. Also Boyd interview with Appel, April 23, 1983, Boyd archive. Field, 1986, 29.

185
Even Mrs. Szeftel: Interview with Kitty Szeftel, August 15, 1996.

186
“Nabokov's
Pnin
”: Bishop to Alison Bishop, April 28, 1957, cited in Diment,
Pniniad
, 63.

187
“Oh, well, every Russian”: Parry,
The Texas Quarterly
, Spring 1971.

188
“Lolita is young”: VN to Epstein, March 5, 1957.

189
Having robbed a bank: Ken McCormick note to Doubleday files, LOC.

190
She was startled, and “repulsive”: Interview with Maria Leiper, February 8, 1998.

191
shunning
Lolita
: James,
The New York Times Book Review
, May 6, 1984.

192
reselling copies: A little bookstore in Ithaca obtained a few copies, marked them $10 each, and sold them out in the course of a half hour. VéN to Ergaz, September 10, 1957.

193
tempted to publish privately: William Styron, “The Book on Lolita,”
The New Yorker
, September 4, 1995, 33.