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[EDNOTE. See note accompanying the first of these three installments
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RIA Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/culture/20080428/106089780.html
Culture
Nabokov's final unfinished novel to see light of day
16:46 | 28/ 04/ 2008
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - The son of Vladimir Nabokov has
announced that he will publish his father's final unfinished novel - a
work which the author ordered destroyed shortly before his death in
1977.
Dmitri Nabokov, 73, has been torn for 30 years between his father's wish
and the literary world's desire to view unfinished drafts of a
manuscript known as 'The Original of Laura'. The work is currently
stored in a Swiss bank.
Neither Dmitri, nor his mother, the writer's widow Vera, had the courage
to carry out Vladimir's wish concerning his final words. Vera died in
1991, leaving Dmitri to decide the fate of the unfinished novel.
Dmitri, who has translated many of his father's works from Russian to
English, justified his decision in an interview given recently to the
German Der Spiegel magazine by saying that, "I'm a loyal son and thought
long and seriously about it, then my father appeared before me and said,
with an ironic grin, 'You're stuck in a right old mess - just go ahead
and publish!'"
He earlier said, as quoted in the online magazine Slate, that Laura
"would have been a brilliant, original, and potentially totally radical
book, in the literary sense very different from the rest of his oeuvre."
The manuscript consists of about 50 index cards covered in Nabokov's
handwriting. The writer utilized index cards as drafts of his works, but
did not put them in any order for his final novel.
The Russian daily Noviye Izvestia said the book will be published in
such a form as to allow readers to decide for themselves the sequence of
events in the book.
Nabokov, born to a noble Russian family in St. Petersburg and given a
top class education before his family fled the Bolshevik Revolution, is
well known in the West as the author of the infamous 'Lolita'. He also
wrote a host of other novels, including 'Pale Fire' and 'Bend Sinister.'
The novelist died in the Switzerland, where he spent the last 16 years
of his life.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90073521
Fiction
Nabokov Novel to Be Published, Against Dying Wish
Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov (right) pictured with his son Dmitri
in May 1961. Dmitri, now 73, has decided — against Nabokov's wishes — to
save his father's last manuscript from destruction. Keystone/Getty
Images
Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov working in Rome on the screenplay of
Lolita. Keystone/Getty Images
“It's basically the story of a brilliant neurologist who is hopelessly
fat, tormented by his young wife, who is hopelessly promiscuous.”
Dmitri Nabokov, describing the premise of his father's unfinished novel
All Things Considered, April 30, 2008 • Vladimir Nabokov's final work —
an unfinished manuscript scholars call The Original of Laura — was meant
to be destroyed 30 years ago. When Nabokov died in 1977, he left
instructions for his heirs to burn the 138 handwritten index cards that
made up the rough draft.
But Nabokov's wife, Vera, couldn't bear to destroy her husband's last
work, and when she died, the fate of the manuscript fell to her son.
Dmitri Nabokov, now 73, is the Russian novelist's only surviving heir.
He says he inherited the problem of whether to honor his father's wishes
or save the literary master's last written words for posterity.
Dmitri, who translated many of his father's novels and short stories,
says he never planned to destroy the manuscript — "I wouldn't have
wanted to go down in history as a literary arsonist," he says — the
question was really how to preserve it.
Dmitri says he could have stored it away, where it would have inevitably
been discovered, or he could publish it now and "present this wonderful
gift to the public" while he is still alive.
"My father was running the last yards of a 100-yard — or 100-card — dash
to achieve this work before he died…" Nabokov says. "Until the last
moments, practically, he was writing in his hospital bed."
Dmitri says the only reason that his father did not want the manuscript
published was because it was not quite complete. "He did not want
unfinished bits trailing behind him after his death," Nabokov recalls.
But after 30 years of grappling with the decision, Nabokov has announced
his plans to publish the novel.
"I came to the very clear conclusion," Nabokov says, "imagining my
father, with a wry smile, in a calmer and happier moment, saying, 'Well
you're in a real mess here — go ahead and publish. Have some fun.'"
http://www.observer.com/2008/who-will-publish-nabokov-s-original-laura-other-unpublished-materials-tk
Who Will Publish Nabokov's The Original of Laura? Other Unpublished
Materials TK
by Leon Neyfakh | April 29, 2008
Vladimir Nabokov’s Laura, the unfinished novel he was writing at the
time of his death, is being shopped to publishers and will probably have
a home within a few weeks, according to the agent who oversees his
estate alongside his 73-year-old son, Dmitri. Dmitri Nabokov—henceforth
Mr. Nabokov—has rather famously spent the last decade and a half trying
to figure out what to do with The Original of Laura and how to reconcile
its obvious scholarly importance with his father’s explicit instructions
to destroy the 138 index cards-- about 150 words on each, according to
Nabokov experts-- upon which the manuscript is written.
The agent Mr. Nabokov has been working with would not say which houses
have expressed interest in The Original of Laura, though you can be sure
that Knopf, which publishes a large chunk of the Nabokov backlist, is
getting a look. Several publishers have already made blind offers.
Other previously unpublished Nabokov materials that will be published in
the near future, according to Nabokov scholar, friend and biographer
Brian Boyd: a collection of Russian verse he translated into English,
out from Houghton Mifflin-Harcourt next fall; a collection of letters he
wrote to his wife “which are marvelously lyrical and full of acute
observation”; a couple of his plays; a collection of interview
transcripts and book reviews he wrote early in his career for New York
papers like The Sun and magazines like The New Republic. The poetry
collection will be the third and final book in a three-book deal the
Nabokov estate signed with Harcourt, which means all that other new
stuff will be up for grabs.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/28/arts/peeptue.php
People: Amy Winehouse, Prince, Dmitri Nabokov
The Associated Press
Published: April 28, 2008
Dmitri Nabokov plans to defy the wishes of his father, Vladimir Nabokov,
by publishing his father's final, incomplete novel rather than
destroying the manuscript by fire. The Guardian of London reported that
Dmitri, 73, told the German magazine Der Spiegel: "I'm a loyal son and
thought long and seriously about it. Then my father appeared before me
and said with an ironic grin: 'You're stuck in a right old mess. Just go
ahead and publish.' " For three decades the fragments of the novel, "The
Original of Laura," on a collection of 50 index cards, have been in a
bank vault in Switzerland, where Vladimir Nabokov, the author of
"Lolita" and "Pale Fire," died in 1977. Dmitri Nabokov, his father's
literary executor, once described it as "the most concentrated
distillation" of his father's creativity. In an interview with the BBC,
Dmitri Nabokov said he found "very disturbing" the thought that no one
would ever read the manuscript.
[ ... ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120968734562761307.html
By ROBERT J. HUGHES
May 2, 2008; Page W2
CULTURAL FIGURES: Literary Life After Death
Some dead authors can still be counted on to produce new work. A
collection of the late Kurt Vin Retrospect," published in April, a year after his death, has been a
best seller. Now, the final, incomplete novel of Vladimir Nabokov
(pictured), "The Original of Laura," may be published, more than 30
years after that author's death. That novel would join others by famous
dead writers whose manuscripts have been mined for the reading public.
Below, a look at the results (in copies sold) for some posthumous novels
by great writers.
[ ... ]
Write to Robert J. Hughes at bob.hughes@wsj.com
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
for an explanation. - SES]
RIA Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/culture/20080428/106089780.html
Culture
Nabokov's final unfinished novel to see light of day
16:46 | 28/ 04/ 2008
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) - The son of Vladimir Nabokov has
announced that he will publish his father's final unfinished novel - a
work which the author ordered destroyed shortly before his death in
1977.
Dmitri Nabokov, 73, has been torn for 30 years between his father's wish
and the literary world's desire to view unfinished drafts of a
manuscript known as 'The Original of Laura'. The work is currently
stored in a Swiss bank.
Neither Dmitri, nor his mother, the writer's widow Vera, had the courage
to carry out Vladimir's wish concerning his final words. Vera died in
1991, leaving Dmitri to decide the fate of the unfinished novel.
Dmitri, who has translated many of his father's works from Russian to
English, justified his decision in an interview given recently to the
German Der Spiegel magazine by saying that, "I'm a loyal son and thought
long and seriously about it, then my father appeared before me and said,
with an ironic grin, 'You're stuck in a right old mess - just go ahead
and publish!'"
He earlier said, as quoted in the online magazine Slate, that Laura
"would have been a brilliant, original, and potentially totally radical
book, in the literary sense very different from the rest of his oeuvre."
The manuscript consists of about 50 index cards covered in Nabokov's
handwriting. The writer utilized index cards as drafts of his works, but
did not put them in any order for his final novel.
The Russian daily Noviye Izvestia said the book will be published in
such a form as to allow readers to decide for themselves the sequence of
events in the book.
Nabokov, born to a noble Russian family in St. Petersburg and given a
top class education before his family fled the Bolshevik Revolution, is
well known in the West as the author of the infamous 'Lolita'. He also
wrote a host of other novels, including 'Pale Fire' and 'Bend Sinister.'
The novelist died in the Switzerland, where he spent the last 16 years
of his life.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90073521
Fiction
Nabokov Novel to Be Published, Against Dying Wish
Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov (right) pictured with his son Dmitri
in May 1961. Dmitri, now 73, has decided — against Nabokov's wishes — to
save his father's last manuscript from destruction. Keystone/Getty
Images
Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov working in Rome on the screenplay of
Lolita. Keystone/Getty Images
“It's basically the story of a brilliant neurologist who is hopelessly
fat, tormented by his young wife, who is hopelessly promiscuous.”
Dmitri Nabokov, describing the premise of his father's unfinished novel
All Things Considered, April 30, 2008 • Vladimir Nabokov's final work —
an unfinished manuscript scholars call The Original of Laura — was meant
to be destroyed 30 years ago. When Nabokov died in 1977, he left
instructions for his heirs to burn the 138 handwritten index cards that
made up the rough draft.
But Nabokov's wife, Vera, couldn't bear to destroy her husband's last
work, and when she died, the fate of the manuscript fell to her son.
Dmitri Nabokov, now 73, is the Russian novelist's only surviving heir.
He says he inherited the problem of whether to honor his father's wishes
or save the literary master's last written words for posterity.
Dmitri, who translated many of his father's novels and short stories,
says he never planned to destroy the manuscript — "I wouldn't have
wanted to go down in history as a literary arsonist," he says — the
question was really how to preserve it.
Dmitri says he could have stored it away, where it would have inevitably
been discovered, or he could publish it now and "present this wonderful
gift to the public" while he is still alive.
"My father was running the last yards of a 100-yard — or 100-card — dash
to achieve this work before he died…" Nabokov says. "Until the last
moments, practically, he was writing in his hospital bed."
Dmitri says the only reason that his father did not want the manuscript
published was because it was not quite complete. "He did not want
unfinished bits trailing behind him after his death," Nabokov recalls.
But after 30 years of grappling with the decision, Nabokov has announced
his plans to publish the novel.
"I came to the very clear conclusion," Nabokov says, "imagining my
father, with a wry smile, in a calmer and happier moment, saying, 'Well
you're in a real mess here — go ahead and publish. Have some fun.'"
http://www.observer.com/2008/who-will-publish-nabokov-s-original-laura-other-unpublished-materials-tk
Who Will Publish Nabokov's The Original of Laura? Other Unpublished
Materials TK
by Leon Neyfakh | April 29, 2008
Vladimir Nabokov’s Laura, the unfinished novel he was writing at the
time of his death, is being shopped to publishers and will probably have
a home within a few weeks, according to the agent who oversees his
estate alongside his 73-year-old son, Dmitri. Dmitri Nabokov—henceforth
Mr. Nabokov—has rather famously spent the last decade and a half trying
to figure out what to do with The Original of Laura and how to reconcile
its obvious scholarly importance with his father’s explicit instructions
to destroy the 138 index cards-- about 150 words on each, according to
Nabokov experts-- upon which the manuscript is written.
The agent Mr. Nabokov has been working with would not say which houses
have expressed interest in The Original of Laura, though you can be sure
that Knopf, which publishes a large chunk of the Nabokov backlist, is
getting a look. Several publishers have already made blind offers.
Other previously unpublished Nabokov materials that will be published in
the near future, according to Nabokov scholar, friend and biographer
Brian Boyd: a collection of Russian verse he translated into English,
out from Houghton Mifflin-Harcourt next fall; a collection of letters he
wrote to his wife “which are marvelously lyrical and full of acute
observation”; a couple of his plays; a collection of interview
transcripts and book reviews he wrote early in his career for New York
papers like The Sun and magazines like The New Republic. The poetry
collection will be the third and final book in a three-book deal the
Nabokov estate signed with Harcourt, which means all that other new
stuff will be up for grabs.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/28/arts/peeptue.php
People: Amy Winehouse, Prince, Dmitri Nabokov
The Associated Press
Published: April 28, 2008
Dmitri Nabokov plans to defy the wishes of his father, Vladimir Nabokov,
by publishing his father's final, incomplete novel rather than
destroying the manuscript by fire. The Guardian of London reported that
Dmitri, 73, told the German magazine Der Spiegel: "I'm a loyal son and
thought long and seriously about it. Then my father appeared before me
and said with an ironic grin: 'You're stuck in a right old mess. Just go
ahead and publish.' " For three decades the fragments of the novel, "The
Original of Laura," on a collection of 50 index cards, have been in a
bank vault in Switzerland, where Vladimir Nabokov, the author of
"Lolita" and "Pale Fire," died in 1977. Dmitri Nabokov, his father's
literary executor, once described it as "the most concentrated
distillation" of his father's creativity. In an interview with the BBC,
Dmitri Nabokov said he found "very disturbing" the thought that no one
would ever read the manuscript.
[ ... ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120968734562761307.html
By ROBERT J. HUGHES
May 2, 2008; Page W2
CULTURAL FIGURES: Literary Life After Death
Some dead authors can still be counted on to produce new work. A
collection of the late Kurt Vin Retrospect," published in April, a year after his death, has been a
best seller. Now, the final, incomplete novel of Vladimir Nabokov
(pictured), "The Original of Laura," may be published, more than 30
years after that author's death. That novel would join others by famous
dead writers whose manuscripts have been mined for the reading public.
Below, a look at the results (in copies sold) for some posthumous novels
by great writers.
[ ... ]
Write to Robert J. Hughes at bob.hughes@wsj.com
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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