NABOKV-L post 0010333, Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:15:59 -0700

----- Forwarded message from Mvoscol@aol.com -----
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 08:51:20 EDT
From: Mvoscol@aol.com
Subject: Re: Miscellaneous Nabokov Sightings
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU

Times Literary Supplement, September 10 2004, p. 14:

NB
.
.
A successful exemplar of Anglo-American relations is the bookdealer Rick
Gekoski, whose enjoyable BBC Radio 4 series on the trade, Rare Books, Rare
People,
has now been turned into a book, Tolkien's Gown. Twelve broadcast episodes
are augmented by eight specially written chapters. The opening tale relates
Gekoski's business dealings with Graham Greene in 1988, over the latter's copy
of Lolita. The novelist was eager to sell, and the pair met at the Ritz. The
inscription read, "For Graham Greene from Vladimir Nabokov, November 8, 1959".
When Greene showed it to Gekoski, the dealer exclaimed: "It's fabulous,
almost perfect".

Greene raised his eyebrows. What was wrong with it. "in a perfect
world it would be
inscribed in the year of publication [1955] ...." He nodded. He was
known to be fond
of bibliographical niceties.

Gekoski offered £4,000, to which Greene responded, "In the light of what you
say, I will take less". Gekoski left the Ritz with Lolita and next morning
sold it to Bernie Taupin, Elton John's lyricist, for £9,000. The transaction
left him feeling melancholy. "I wasn't certain I had undersold the book", he
remarks, "but I was certain I had under-owned it."
.
.
J.C.

----- End forwarded message -----