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Re: "Lines Written in Oregon," by Vladimir Nabokov ...
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I love the poem. It pleases me to imagine "(obliterated) Peak." as "Harney
Peak," in Black Hills National Forest. Attached is a view from its summit,
the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Oglala
Lakota medicine man Black Elk had his "great vision" at this spot, where he
first met "the spirit that guides the universe." VN also hunted butterflies
nearby, *Lolita *index cards in tow.
On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 7:24 AM, Sandy P. Klein <spklein52@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> [image: Ashland Daily Tidings] <http://www.dailytidings.com/>
>
>
> http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100728/NEWS02/7280308/-1/NEWSMAP
>
> Mount Ashland event to remember Nabokov
> The author wrote parts of 'Lolita' at house on Meade Street and collected
> butterflies on mountains
>
> Photo 1 of 3 | Zoom Photo +
>
> [image: Top Photo]
>
> By Hannah Guzik - Ashland Daily Tidings
> Posted: 2:00 AM July 28, 2010
>
>
> After spending the day catching butterflies on Mount Ashland in the summer
> of 1953, Vladimir Nabokov would return to his Meade Street home to finish
> what is regarded by literary scholars to be one of the greatest novels of
> the 20th century.
>
>
>
> Nabokov was working on "Lolita" in the home above downtown Ashland, during
> what he called an "extraordinarily productive writing summer."
>
>
>
> A 1999 fire destroyed the house at 163 Meade St. that Nabokov and his wife,
> Vera, rented from a professor who taught at what is now Southern Oregon
> University.
> Nabokov wrote this poem in Ashland during summer 1953:
>
> "Lines Written in Oregon," by Vladimir Nabokov
>
> Esmeralda! now we rest
>
> Here, in the bewitched and blest
>
> Mountain forests of the West.
>
> Here the very air is stranger.
>
> Damzel, anchoret, and ranger
>
> Share the woodland's dream and danger.
>
> And to think I deemed you dead!
>
> (In a dungeon, it was said;
>
> Tortured, strangled); but instead -
>
> Blue birds from the bluest fable,
>
> Bear and hare in coats of sable,
>
> Peacock moth on picnic table.
>
> Huddled road signs softly speak
>
> Of Lake Merlin, Castle Creek,
>
> And (obliterated) Peak.
>
> Do you recognize that clover?
>
> Dandelions, l'or du pauvre?
>
> (Europe, nonetheless, is over).
>
> Up the turk, along the burn
>
> Latin lilies climb and turn
>
> Into Gothic fir and fern.
>
> Cornfields have befouled the prairies
>
> But these canyons laugh! And there is
>
> Still the forest with its fairies.
>
> And I rest where I awoke
>
> In the sea shade - l'ombre glauque -
>
> Of a legendary oak;
>
> Where the woods get ever dimmer,
>
> Where the Phantom Orchids glimmer -
>
> Esmeralda, immer, immer.
>
> — Courtesy of Shelley Austin, executive director of the Jackson County
> Library Foundation
>
>
>
> If you go
>
> What: Nabokov on Mount Ashland, a fundraiser for county libraries
>
> When: 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1
>
> Where: Lodge at the Mount Ashland ski area
>
> Tickets: $36. See www.jclf.org or call the library foundation at
> 541-774-6572
>
>
>
> But Ashland residents can return to the mountain where Nabokov classified
> butterflies and the novel in which he alluded to them.
>
>
>
> A fundraiser at the Mount Ashland lodge Sunday, sponsored by the Jackson
> County Library Foundation, will provide background on the novelist's time in
> Ashland, his studies of butterflies and his writing about the winged
> creatures. Proceeds from the event will benefit the county's public
> libraries.
>
>
>
> "Scientists think of him as a scientist, and literary people think of him
> as a writer," said Shelley Austin, the foundation's executive director.
> "It's pretty amazing because he was so accomplished in both of those
> fields."
>
>
>
> The 3 to 7 p.m. Nabokov on Mount Ashland event will feature a lecture by
> Robert Michael Pyle, co-editor of "Nabokov's Butterflies," a collection of
> Nabokov's writing, translated by his son, Dmitri Nabokov.
>
>
>
> Pyle, who holds a doctorate in ecology from Yale University, plans to
> search Mount Ashland for a relative of the butterfly Nabokov was studying
> while writing "Lolita" and to show audience members the live butterfly,
> called Nabokov's Blue.
>
>
>
> "Participants may have an opportunity to see live examples of the actual
> kind of butterflies he worked on," Pyle said.
>
>
>
> The Gray's River, Wash., resident also plans to play a recording of Nabokov
> reading his poem, "Lines Written in Oregon," that he wrote in Ashland.
>
>
>
> An Oregon Shakespeare Festival actor, who has yet to be announced, will
> read from Nabokov's work. Tickets to the event, which includes a catered
> dinner, cost $36.
>
>
>
> Nabokov was equally serious about becoming a lepidopterist, or butterfly
> collector, as he was a writer, Austin said.
>
>
>
> "My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly
> hunting," Nabokov wrote in "Strong Opinions," a collection of his essays,
> interviews and letters to editors.
>
>
>
> Butterfly allusions flit through the pages of "Lolita," about a romance
> between a middle-aged professor and a 12-year-old girl, Lolita. The
> professor, Hubert Humphrey, compares Lolita to a butterfly.
>
>
> Nabokov used the same language to describe the Blue butterfly in his
> scientific writing as he did to describe Lolita in his novel, Pyle said.
>
>
>
> "This is Nabokov's big caper, that he used some of the same language to
> describe the girl and the butterfly," he said. "He probably wondered if
> anyone would ever notice."
>
>
>
> Just as Humphrey loved Lolita, Nabokov loved butterflies.
>
>
>
> "Every summer my wife and I go butterfly hunting," he wrote in his 1956
> essay "On a Book Entitled 'Lolita.'" "It was at such of our headquarters as
> Telluride, Colorado; Afton, Wyoming; Portal, Arizona; and Ashland, Oregon,
> that 'Lolita' was energetically resumed in the evenings or on cloudy days. I
> finished copying the thing out in longhand in the spring of 1954, and at
> once began casting around for a publisher."
>
>
>
> The novel was published in Paris in 1955 and in the U.S. in 1958, creating
> a sensation because of its controversial subject matter. The book sold out
> the day it reached U.S. shelves and was on best-seller lists for a year,
> Austin said.
>
>
>
> Nabokov discovered Ashland while traveling to visit his son, Dmitri, in
> Roseburg, she said. The author and his wife ended up spending July though
> September of that year in Ashland.
>
>
>
> "He found that this was an abundant place for butterflies," Austin said.
> "Between the middle of July and the middle of August is when most of the
> flowers and butterflies are out. So that's right now and it's just gorgeous
> up there.
>
>
>
> "Once you get butterflies in your head, you see them everywhere, and I've
> been seeing them everywhere," she said.
>
>
>
> Just like Nabokov.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> For more information on the event or to buy tickets, see www.jclf.org or
> call the library foundation at 541-774-6572.
>
>
>
> Contact reporter Hannah Guzik at 541-482-3456 ext. 226 or
> hguzik@dailytidings.com
>
>
>
>
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
--
Norky
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
Peak," in Black Hills National Forest. Attached is a view from its summit,
the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Oglala
Lakota medicine man Black Elk had his "great vision" at this spot, where he
first met "the spirit that guides the universe." VN also hunted butterflies
nearby, *Lolita *index cards in tow.
On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 7:24 AM, Sandy P. Klein <spklein52@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> [image: Ashland Daily Tidings] <http://www.dailytidings.com/>
>
>
> http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100728/NEWS02/7280308/-1/NEWSMAP
>
> Mount Ashland event to remember Nabokov
> The author wrote parts of 'Lolita' at house on Meade Street and collected
> butterflies on mountains
>
> Photo 1 of 3 | Zoom Photo +
>
> [image: Top Photo]
>
> By Hannah Guzik - Ashland Daily Tidings
> Posted: 2:00 AM July 28, 2010
>
>
> After spending the day catching butterflies on Mount Ashland in the summer
> of 1953, Vladimir Nabokov would return to his Meade Street home to finish
> what is regarded by literary scholars to be one of the greatest novels of
> the 20th century.
>
>
>
> Nabokov was working on "Lolita" in the home above downtown Ashland, during
> what he called an "extraordinarily productive writing summer."
>
>
>
> A 1999 fire destroyed the house at 163 Meade St. that Nabokov and his wife,
> Vera, rented from a professor who taught at what is now Southern Oregon
> University.
> Nabokov wrote this poem in Ashland during summer 1953:
>
> "Lines Written in Oregon," by Vladimir Nabokov
>
> Esmeralda! now we rest
>
> Here, in the bewitched and blest
>
> Mountain forests of the West.
>
> Here the very air is stranger.
>
> Damzel, anchoret, and ranger
>
> Share the woodland's dream and danger.
>
> And to think I deemed you dead!
>
> (In a dungeon, it was said;
>
> Tortured, strangled); but instead -
>
> Blue birds from the bluest fable,
>
> Bear and hare in coats of sable,
>
> Peacock moth on picnic table.
>
> Huddled road signs softly speak
>
> Of Lake Merlin, Castle Creek,
>
> And (obliterated) Peak.
>
> Do you recognize that clover?
>
> Dandelions, l'or du pauvre?
>
> (Europe, nonetheless, is over).
>
> Up the turk, along the burn
>
> Latin lilies climb and turn
>
> Into Gothic fir and fern.
>
> Cornfields have befouled the prairies
>
> But these canyons laugh! And there is
>
> Still the forest with its fairies.
>
> And I rest where I awoke
>
> In the sea shade - l'ombre glauque -
>
> Of a legendary oak;
>
> Where the woods get ever dimmer,
>
> Where the Phantom Orchids glimmer -
>
> Esmeralda, immer, immer.
>
> — Courtesy of Shelley Austin, executive director of the Jackson County
> Library Foundation
>
>
>
> If you go
>
> What: Nabokov on Mount Ashland, a fundraiser for county libraries
>
> When: 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1
>
> Where: Lodge at the Mount Ashland ski area
>
> Tickets: $36. See www.jclf.org or call the library foundation at
> 541-774-6572
>
>
>
> But Ashland residents can return to the mountain where Nabokov classified
> butterflies and the novel in which he alluded to them.
>
>
>
> A fundraiser at the Mount Ashland lodge Sunday, sponsored by the Jackson
> County Library Foundation, will provide background on the novelist's time in
> Ashland, his studies of butterflies and his writing about the winged
> creatures. Proceeds from the event will benefit the county's public
> libraries.
>
>
>
> "Scientists think of him as a scientist, and literary people think of him
> as a writer," said Shelley Austin, the foundation's executive director.
> "It's pretty amazing because he was so accomplished in both of those
> fields."
>
>
>
> The 3 to 7 p.m. Nabokov on Mount Ashland event will feature a lecture by
> Robert Michael Pyle, co-editor of "Nabokov's Butterflies," a collection of
> Nabokov's writing, translated by his son, Dmitri Nabokov.
>
>
>
> Pyle, who holds a doctorate in ecology from Yale University, plans to
> search Mount Ashland for a relative of the butterfly Nabokov was studying
> while writing "Lolita" and to show audience members the live butterfly,
> called Nabokov's Blue.
>
>
>
> "Participants may have an opportunity to see live examples of the actual
> kind of butterflies he worked on," Pyle said.
>
>
>
> The Gray's River, Wash., resident also plans to play a recording of Nabokov
> reading his poem, "Lines Written in Oregon," that he wrote in Ashland.
>
>
>
> An Oregon Shakespeare Festival actor, who has yet to be announced, will
> read from Nabokov's work. Tickets to the event, which includes a catered
> dinner, cost $36.
>
>
>
> Nabokov was equally serious about becoming a lepidopterist, or butterfly
> collector, as he was a writer, Austin said.
>
>
>
> "My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly
> hunting," Nabokov wrote in "Strong Opinions," a collection of his essays,
> interviews and letters to editors.
>
>
>
> Butterfly allusions flit through the pages of "Lolita," about a romance
> between a middle-aged professor and a 12-year-old girl, Lolita. The
> professor, Hubert Humphrey, compares Lolita to a butterfly.
>
>
> Nabokov used the same language to describe the Blue butterfly in his
> scientific writing as he did to describe Lolita in his novel, Pyle said.
>
>
>
> "This is Nabokov's big caper, that he used some of the same language to
> describe the girl and the butterfly," he said. "He probably wondered if
> anyone would ever notice."
>
>
>
> Just as Humphrey loved Lolita, Nabokov loved butterflies.
>
>
>
> "Every summer my wife and I go butterfly hunting," he wrote in his 1956
> essay "On a Book Entitled 'Lolita.'" "It was at such of our headquarters as
> Telluride, Colorado; Afton, Wyoming; Portal, Arizona; and Ashland, Oregon,
> that 'Lolita' was energetically resumed in the evenings or on cloudy days. I
> finished copying the thing out in longhand in the spring of 1954, and at
> once began casting around for a publisher."
>
>
>
> The novel was published in Paris in 1955 and in the U.S. in 1958, creating
> a sensation because of its controversial subject matter. The book sold out
> the day it reached U.S. shelves and was on best-seller lists for a year,
> Austin said.
>
>
>
> Nabokov discovered Ashland while traveling to visit his son, Dmitri, in
> Roseburg, she said. The author and his wife ended up spending July though
> September of that year in Ashland.
>
>
>
> "He found that this was an abundant place for butterflies," Austin said.
> "Between the middle of July and the middle of August is when most of the
> flowers and butterflies are out. So that's right now and it's just gorgeous
> up there.
>
>
>
> "Once you get butterflies in your head, you see them everywhere, and I've
> been seeing them everywhere," she said.
>
>
>
> Just like Nabokov.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> For more information on the event or to buy tickets, see www.jclf.org or
> call the library foundation at 541-774-6572.
>
>
>
> Contact reporter Hannah Guzik at 541-482-3456 ext. 226 or
> hguzik@dailytidings.com
>
>
>
>
> Search the archive<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> Contact
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> Visit "Nabokov
> Online Journal" <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Visit Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> View
> Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Manage
> subscription options <http://listserv.ucsb.edu/>
>
> All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
> co-editors.
>
--
Norky
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
