Subject
Fwd: RE: Nabokov's father's multiple birthdays
From
Date
Body
"the revelation that I was I and that my parents were my parents was directly
associated with my discovering their age in relation to mine. . . . the
occasion was my father's birthday, in midsummer, in the country . . . . that
twenty-first day of July, 1902" (CE 3-4)
VN was born in St. Petersburg on April 10, O.S., 1899, which was
April 12, 1899 in the Western world, but had his first birthday on April 10,
O.S., 1900, which was April 23, 1900, in the West, since the Julian and
Gregorian calendars were now one day more out of alignment. April 10 O.S.
remained his birthday as long as the Nabokovs lived in areas under O.S. dating
(in their case, until the flight from the Crimea in April 1919); but already
during any trips to the West (as when the family were in Abbazia in April 1906)
they celebrated VN's birthday on April 23 (since according to the Russian
calendar they still took with them this was April 10 O.S.).
Similarly, VDN was born on July 8, 1870, O.S. (but as VN himself
noted, some references mistakenly record "1869"). This was July 20, 1870, N.S.,
and that July 20 equivalence remained until 1899; but from 1900 this birthday
was equivalent to, and was celebrated by the family when in the West on, July
21 (on their summer trips to southern Europe in the 1900s, or between 1919 and
for as long as the family remembered his birthday in emigration). It is for
that reason that VN first used July 21 in Conclusive Evidence, that he staged
Shade's assassination on July 21, 1959, that he had Ada's birthday celebrated
in midsummer picnics on July 21, 1884 and 1888 (in a world where American and
Russian calendars coincided).
I took some pains to explain the dates in VNRY, on a page by itself,
technically p. [xiii], the recto between the Illustrations and the half-title,
easy enough to locate, and find it strange that people cannot grasp the rather
simple shift between a difference of 12 days in the 1800s and a difference of
13 in the 1900s. In Conclusive Evidence Nabokov chose to use the N.S. date the
family had celebrated or commemorated ever since they had been in the West in
the 20th century; in Speak, Memory he chose to use the date the correspondence
that obtained in 1870.
The date for Abbazia above is correct, but depends on the evidence
of V.D. Nabokov letters in Russian archives not available to me at the time I
wrote Chs. 2-3 of VNRY, and not on VN's memorial misdating in SM. The correct
dates for the years 1904-06 can be found in the French, German, Japanese and
Russian editions (but not the Spanish) of VNRY, and in my "Nabokov's Russian
Years Revisited," in Michael Flier and Robert Hughes, eds., For SK: In
Celebration of the Life and Career of Simon Karlinsky (Berkeley: Berkeley
Slavic Specialties, 1994, 71-79. The occasion (and therefore the date) to which
VN assigned his first conscious recollection also changed, of course, between CE
and SM.
People may continue discussing this topic for as long as they like,
but I will keep out of it. I have new work to do.
Brian Boyd
=========================================
Brian Boyd, PhD
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English, University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz
fax +64 9 373 7429
tel +64 9 373 7599 x 87480
http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/staff/index.cfm?S=STAFF_bboy001
<http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/staff/index.cfm?S=STAFF_bboy001>
________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Fri 15/07/2005 10:52 a.m.
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Re: Nabokov's father's multiple birthdays
----- Forwarded message from chaiselongue@earthlink.net -----
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:02:20 -0800
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Nabokov's father's multiple birthdays
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Thank you Dana. Robert Browder seems to agree with VN himself in Speak
Memory.
But the question remains - - why does Brian Boyd make the date to be July
21? The character John Shade in Pale Fire is "shot" on that day and Boyd
finds this to be a personally significant date to VN. Alexey Sklyarenko
similarly finds significance in the fact that Ada's birthday is July 21.
Nor does it explain why the Nabokov genealogy (and other online sources)
gives the date as July 15.
To add to this confusion I discover that the University of California's book
catalog gives a birth year of 1869 instead of 1870.
Perhaps there were two of him? or three?
Carolyn
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 08:08:05 -0700
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: Nabokov's father's birthday
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from dana.dragunoiu@sympatico.ca -----
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 07:51:40 -0400
> From: Dana Dragunoiu <dana.dragunoiu@sympatico.ca>
> Reply-To: Dana Dragunoiu <dana.dragunoiu@sympatico.ca>
> Subject: Nabokov's father's birthday
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
>
> Dear Carolyn, Don, and list members:
>
> Robert Browder, in his Introduction to V.D. Nabokov and the Russian
> Provisional Government, 1917 (edited by Virgil Medlin and Steven
> Parsons), states that V.D. Nabokov was born on July 20, 1870 (pg. 2).
> Hope this helps.
>
> Best wishes,
> Dana
>
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----
associated with my discovering their age in relation to mine. . . . the
occasion was my father's birthday, in midsummer, in the country . . . . that
twenty-first day of July, 1902" (CE 3-4)
VN was born in St. Petersburg on April 10, O.S., 1899, which was
April 12, 1899 in the Western world, but had his first birthday on April 10,
O.S., 1900, which was April 23, 1900, in the West, since the Julian and
Gregorian calendars were now one day more out of alignment. April 10 O.S.
remained his birthday as long as the Nabokovs lived in areas under O.S. dating
(in their case, until the flight from the Crimea in April 1919); but already
during any trips to the West (as when the family were in Abbazia in April 1906)
they celebrated VN's birthday on April 23 (since according to the Russian
calendar they still took with them this was April 10 O.S.).
Similarly, VDN was born on July 8, 1870, O.S. (but as VN himself
noted, some references mistakenly record "1869"). This was July 20, 1870, N.S.,
and that July 20 equivalence remained until 1899; but from 1900 this birthday
was equivalent to, and was celebrated by the family when in the West on, July
21 (on their summer trips to southern Europe in the 1900s, or between 1919 and
for as long as the family remembered his birthday in emigration). It is for
that reason that VN first used July 21 in Conclusive Evidence, that he staged
Shade's assassination on July 21, 1959, that he had Ada's birthday celebrated
in midsummer picnics on July 21, 1884 and 1888 (in a world where American and
Russian calendars coincided).
I took some pains to explain the dates in VNRY, on a page by itself,
technically p. [xiii], the recto between the Illustrations and the half-title,
easy enough to locate, and find it strange that people cannot grasp the rather
simple shift between a difference of 12 days in the 1800s and a difference of
13 in the 1900s. In Conclusive Evidence Nabokov chose to use the N.S. date the
family had celebrated or commemorated ever since they had been in the West in
the 20th century; in Speak, Memory he chose to use the date the correspondence
that obtained in 1870.
The date for Abbazia above is correct, but depends on the evidence
of V.D. Nabokov letters in Russian archives not available to me at the time I
wrote Chs. 2-3 of VNRY, and not on VN's memorial misdating in SM. The correct
dates for the years 1904-06 can be found in the French, German, Japanese and
Russian editions (but not the Spanish) of VNRY, and in my "Nabokov's Russian
Years Revisited," in Michael Flier and Robert Hughes, eds., For SK: In
Celebration of the Life and Career of Simon Karlinsky (Berkeley: Berkeley
Slavic Specialties, 1994, 71-79. The occasion (and therefore the date) to which
VN assigned his first conscious recollection also changed, of course, between CE
and SM.
People may continue discussing this topic for as long as they like,
but I will keep out of it. I have new work to do.
Brian Boyd
=========================================
Brian Boyd, PhD
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English, University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz
fax +64 9 373 7429
tel +64 9 373 7599 x 87480
http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/staff/index.cfm?S=STAFF_bboy001
<http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/staff/index.cfm?S=STAFF_bboy001>
________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of Donald B. Johnson
Sent: Fri 15/07/2005 10:52 a.m.
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fwd: Re: Nabokov's father's multiple birthdays
----- Forwarded message from chaiselongue@earthlink.net -----
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:02:20 -0800
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Nabokov's father's multiple birthdays
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Thank you Dana. Robert Browder seems to agree with VN himself in Speak
Memory.
But the question remains - - why does Brian Boyd make the date to be July
21? The character John Shade in Pale Fire is "shot" on that day and Boyd
finds this to be a personally significant date to VN. Alexey Sklyarenko
similarly finds significance in the fact that Ada's birthday is July 21.
Nor does it explain why the Nabokov genealogy (and other online sources)
gives the date as July 15.
To add to this confusion I discover that the University of California's book
catalog gives a birth year of 1869 instead of 1870.
Perhaps there were two of him? or three?
Carolyn
> From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
> Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 08:08:05 -0700
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fwd: Nabokov's father's birthday
>
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from dana.dragunoiu@sympatico.ca -----
> Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 07:51:40 -0400
> From: Dana Dragunoiu <dana.dragunoiu@sympatico.ca>
> Reply-To: Dana Dragunoiu <dana.dragunoiu@sympatico.ca>
> Subject: Nabokov's father's birthday
> To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
>
> Dear Carolyn, Don, and list members:
>
> Robert Browder, in his Introduction to V.D. Nabokov and the Russian
> Provisional Government, 1917 (edited by Virgil Medlin and Steven
> Parsons), states that V.D. Nabokov was born on July 20, 1870 (pg. 2).
> Hope this helps.
>
> Best wishes,
> Dana
>
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----