Subject
Fw: misprint in "Pale fire"? A query.
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EDRESPONSE. It is a typo ("on" NOT "or"). Boyd includes the correction in
his Library of America edition --p. 472 and p. 871. This edition is
definitive.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Rosenbaum" <palefire30@YAHOO.COM>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (19
lines) ------------------
> Has anyone pointed out what <appears>. to be a misprint in line 532 of
the poem
> "Pale Fire"? In the list of the moments and images that the poet said
would cause
> him to forsake eternity were they absent, he mentions "the trail of
silver slime/Snails
> leave or flagstones..."
>
> Or that's the way it appears in my Putnam's "first impression'", and
the 1989
> Vintage paperback reprint.
>
> But shouldn't it be "the trail of silver slime/Snails leave <on>
flagstones"? I could
> see an argument for the way it is, but in the context of the passage such
an argument
> seems weak.' It seems to me it's not an idle question since a misprint
(mountain/
> fountain) is at the heart of the poem's meditation on the afterlife ("Life
Everlasting--
> based on a misprint!"--l. 803) and the artfulness of fate.
>
> Of course it's possible it is a deliberate misprint, planted there by
VN to foreshadow
> the mountain/fountain business.
>
> I'm curious if there has been debate about this, or if not what a
scrupulous textual
> scholar would advise the publisher and copyright holder at this point.
his Library of America edition --p. 472 and p. 871. This edition is
definitive.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Rosenbaum" <palefire30@YAHOO.COM>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (19
lines) ------------------
> Has anyone pointed out what <appears>. to be a misprint in line 532 of
the poem
> "Pale Fire"? In the list of the moments and images that the poet said
would cause
> him to forsake eternity were they absent, he mentions "the trail of
silver slime/Snails
> leave or flagstones..."
>
> Or that's the way it appears in my Putnam's "first impression'", and
the 1989
> Vintage paperback reprint.
>
> But shouldn't it be "the trail of silver slime/Snails leave <on>
flagstones"? I could
> see an argument for the way it is, but in the context of the passage such
an argument
> seems weak.' It seems to me it's not an idle question since a misprint
(mountain/
> fountain) is at the heart of the poem's meditation on the afterlife ("Life
Everlasting--
> based on a misprint!"--l. 803) and the artfulness of fate.
>
> Of course it's possible it is a deliberate misprint, planted there by
VN to foreshadow
> the mountain/fountain business.
>
> I'm curious if there has been debate about this, or if not what a
scrupulous textual
> scholar would advise the publisher and copyright holder at this point.