Subject
THOUGHTS: Where's Botkin? Answer #2: The Mid-Atlantic
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Jerry Friedman writes:
Okay, now you got me interested. Pendleton County, W. V., and
Highland County, Va., are not only at the right latitude, but
they also have the right altitude range. (Pendleton County
appears to go from about 500 feet to 4860 feet--Spruce Knob,
the highest point in West Virginia). The Atlantis Fritillary
occurs in both counties
<http://www.nearctica.com/butter/plate14/Satlantis.htm>; I
can't find such a detailed map for the Diana Fritillary.
And of course they fit all the other criteria mentioned in
Boyd's PF book and in the discussions here some months ago.
I wonder whether Nabokov found "Botkin" on a map and
decided to put Shade's town there.
Of course the real Pendleton and Highland Counties are like
PF's Appalachia only in geography and natural history, not
in human terms. The current population densities there
are 5 and 2 people per square km, respectively. The
populations might have been higher, but the area certainly
never had anything like Wordsmith College, New Wye, or
Exton with its "firm of surgical instruments".
There seem to have been Botkins there for some time. A
Private Isaac Newton Botkin of the 31st Virginia Infantry,
born in Pendleton Co., died of fever at his home in Highland Co.
in 1862
<http://books.google.com/books?id=0NshAAAAMAAJ&vid=ISBN0930919599&q=Botkin&pgis=1#search>.
(His places of birth and death might have been the same, as
Highland Co. was formed in 1847 from parts of Pendleton Co. and
others. Little did anyone dream that the two counties would
end up in separate states.)
This led me to wonder about "Botkin". People have informed
the list about the Russian Botkins, but I didn't realize or
forgot it was also an English surname (as Lukin is both). It's
apparently from Essex and comes from either "Bodkin" (short
pointed weapon) or "Batkin" (diminutive of Bartholomew)
<http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?fid=10&yr=0&ln=Botkin>.
No fancy footwear.
Jerry Friedman
***
Victor Fet wrote:
> (a)
> Bodkin Island (Chesapeake Bay)
>
> (the place where the first lighthouse in Maryland was constructed (1821)
> as an aid to shipping entering Baltimore)
>
> (b)
> Botkin Hollow -
> a valley in Highland County, Virginia.
> Latitude: 38.40722 : Longitude: -79.4486
>
> (c)
> Botkin Ridge - in Pendleton County, West Virginia.
> Latitude: 38.50083 - Longitude: -79.42
>
> NOTE: compare (b) and (c) with latitude of Palermo, 38 08'N
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Okay, now you got me interested. Pendleton County, W. V., and
Highland County, Va., are not only at the right latitude, but
they also have the right altitude range. (Pendleton County
appears to go from about 500 feet to 4860 feet--Spruce Knob,
the highest point in West Virginia). The Atlantis Fritillary
occurs in both counties
<http://www.nearctica.com/butter/plate14/Satlantis.htm>; I
can't find such a detailed map for the Diana Fritillary.
And of course they fit all the other criteria mentioned in
Boyd's PF book and in the discussions here some months ago.
I wonder whether Nabokov found "Botkin" on a map and
decided to put Shade's town there.
Of course the real Pendleton and Highland Counties are like
PF's Appalachia only in geography and natural history, not
in human terms. The current population densities there
are 5 and 2 people per square km, respectively. The
populations might have been higher, but the area certainly
never had anything like Wordsmith College, New Wye, or
Exton with its "firm of surgical instruments".
There seem to have been Botkins there for some time. A
Private Isaac Newton Botkin of the 31st Virginia Infantry,
born in Pendleton Co., died of fever at his home in Highland Co.
in 1862
<http://books.google.com/books?id=0NshAAAAMAAJ&vid=ISBN0930919599&q=Botkin&pgis=1#search>.
(His places of birth and death might have been the same, as
Highland Co. was formed in 1847 from parts of Pendleton Co. and
others. Little did anyone dream that the two counties would
end up in separate states.)
This led me to wonder about "Botkin". People have informed
the list about the Russian Botkins, but I didn't realize or
forgot it was also an English surname (as Lukin is both). It's
apparently from Essex and comes from either "Bodkin" (short
pointed weapon) or "Batkin" (diminutive of Bartholomew)
<http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/Fact.aspx?fid=10&yr=0&ln=Botkin>.
No fancy footwear.
Jerry Friedman
***
Victor Fet wrote:
> (a)
> Bodkin Island (Chesapeake Bay)
>
> (the place where the first lighthouse in Maryland was constructed (1821)
> as an aid to shipping entering Baltimore)
>
> (b)
> Botkin Hollow -
> a valley in Highland County, Virginia.
> Latitude: 38.40722 : Longitude: -79.4486
>
> (c)
> Botkin Ridge - in Pendleton County, West Virginia.
> Latitude: 38.50083 - Longitude: -79.42
>
> NOTE: compare (b) and (c) with latitude of Palermo, 38 08'N
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