Subject
Fw: Query: Nabokov's Correspondence with Donald Cammell
From
Date
Body
----- Forwarded message from umlands@unk.edu -----
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 20:01:16 -0600
From: Sam Umland <umlands@unk.edu>
Reply-To: Sam Umland <umlands@unk.edu>
Subject: Fw: Query: Nabokov's Correspondence with Donald Cammell
To: b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz
Dear Prof. Boyd and members of the Nabokov list:
Thank you all for a remarkably swift response to my query. For those
interested, the reply from the Berg Collection is below.
all the best,
Sam
Samuel J. Umland
Department of English
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, NE 68849
308.865.8299
----- Forwarded by Sam Umland/english/UNK/UNEBR on 01/25/05 07:58 PM -----
scrook@nypl.org
01/25/05 02:16 PM
To
Sam Umland <umlands@unk.edu>
cc
b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz
Subject
Re: Query: Nabokov's Correspondence with Donald Cammell
Dear Samuel J. Umland:
Thank you for your message. The only screenplay adaptation of Vladimir
Nabokov's Pale Fire held in the Berg Collection is one written by Dennis
Delrogh. It is 104 pages in length and is unsigned and undated. It is
not
accompanied by any correspondence, either to/from Dennis Delrogh or
to/from
Donald Cammell.
With our best wishes,
Stephen Crook
Librarian
Berg Collection
Sam Umland
<umlands@unk.edu> To: brgref@nypl.org
cc:
01/23/2005 06:37 Subject: Query: Nabokov's
Correspondence with Donald Cammell
PM
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to find out whether there is any correspondence in the Berg
Collection between Vladimir Nabokov and British film director Donald
Cammell, whom I believe wrote a screenplay of Nabokov's Pale Fire ca.
1965.
As you can see from the attached post, Nabokov expert Brian Boyd suggested
to me that if there is a record of this letter, it may well be in your
collection. Although conjectural, I strongly believe that Cammell wrote
the
screenplay ca. 1965 or 1966. If you indeed have records of any
correspondence, such letters would have been written between the years
1963-1967. Donald Cammell lived in Paris from mid-1961 to the end of 1967,
in an atelier on the rue Delambre.
If you a record of any correspondence, please contact you at your earliest
convenience. If you need any additional information, please let me know.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sincerely,
Sam
Samuel J. Umland
Department of English
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, NE 68849
308.865.8299
----- Forwarded by Sam Umland/english/UNK/UNEBR on 01/23/05 05:26 PM -----
"Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)"
<b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To
01/23/05 02:49 PM "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'"
<NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
cc
"'umlands@unk.edu'"
<umlands@unk.edu>
Subject
RE: QUERY: Nabokov's Pale Fire &
film director Donald Cammell
Dear Sam and List,
I don't have any record of this either from the Pale Fire MSS (and when I
catalogued the MSS for Vera Nabokov, I always put translations and
adaptations with the original) or from the correspondence. Having been
fascinated for many many years by the problems a Pale Fire film would face
and the solutions it might inspire, I'm sure I would have noted a remark
like this from VN (he wasn't profligate of praise) and remembered it; and
ditto with at least aspects of a screenplay.
However, it could be possible that the Berg Collection of the New York
Public Library (brgref@nypl.org) has catalogued correspondence between VN
and Cammell. Since the Ns meticulously kept carbon copies of outgoing
correspondence, and the Berg has everything from this period, it would be
there if anywhere.
Are you sure there isn't a confusion with Michael Scammell, whose
translation (with Dmitri Nabokov) of Nabokov's The Gift was published in
1963 and (solus) of The Defense in 1964?
Best wishes,
Brian Boyd
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald B. Johnson [mailto:chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 8:48 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: QUERY: Nabokov's Pale Fire & film director Donald Cammell
Dear Sam,
Thank you for writing, and thank you for your very nice comments. I don't
see a mention of Cammell in either the _Selected Letters_ or in the Brian
Boyd biography, but I am forwarding your letter to the Nabokv-L forum,
where
they really, really know their stuff.
(Roeg did _Walkabout_, right? That's a wonderful movie. I think I
sometimes
get him confused with Weir.)
Best,
Juan
- - http://www.fulmerford.com
>>> Sam Umland <umlands@unk.edu> 01/23/05 1:56 PM >>>
Dear Mr. Martinez:
I came across your excellent Nabokov appreciation site and thought you
might
be able to answer a question for me (or know someone who might).
I'm
completing a biography of the late British film director Donald Cammell
(most famous for the film he co-directed with Nic Roeg, Performance, in
1970). Apparently Cammell wrote an (unproduced) screenplay based on
Nabokov's PALE FIRE. Once source indicates after Nabokov read the
screenplay
he wrote Cammell a letter praising the screenplay. My guess is the
screenplay was written about 1965 or 1966--do you know of anyone who
might the existence of such a letter? Any information you could provide
would be greatly appreciated (and acknowledged). Feel free to forward this
letter to anyone who might have knowledge of such a letter.
Thank you for your time!
best,
Sam
Samuel J. Umland
Department of English
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Kearney, NE 68849
308.865.8299
----- End forwarded message -----
----- End forwarded message -----