Subject
Nabokov and Editors/Idle Question
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For my comment, see below. GD
From: TurquoizeZ@aol.com
Hello group-
I am an unspectacular undergraduate student (just chose English as my major)
so forgive me if what I ask is well-known among most of you. Its funny how
often queries to this group start with similar disclaimers, but of course we
are in some impressive company here so it isn't too surprising. I've read
only four novels of VN's novels but hope to soon devour them all (and reread
them many times of course, that is why I am so slow to get to the others -
all that time spent going over the works I have already read!)
I am just curious about who edited Nabokov, particularly with his American
works. And how they went about it. I imagine it would have been quite an
intimidating task, particularly as he slipped so many allusions and puns and
so forth that certainly an editor couldn't expect to understand all of it and
make out what wasn't intentional or didn't work. And when I mean editing I
mean less of the grammar stuff (although that too - how would one know an odd
sentence structure wasn't a reference to something-or-other work of
literature or just pure brilliance anyhow?) but the bizarre twists and turns
of plots as well. Or was Nabokov so established that his work was little
edited at all?
Just curious. Thanks for any insight.
Liz
***Most of this information, including Nabokov's frequent sparring with
his editors, can be found in _Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters_ and Brian
Boyd's _Vladimir Nabokov: American Years_. He _was_ edited, and in most
cases did not like it, and left his editors in no doubt as to how he
felt about it. Some editors took it better than others that he, a
non-native speaker and writer of English, was telling them, professional
language fixers, what proper usage was. But on rare occasions that he
truly made a non-native mistake, he was the first one to admit it and
laugh about it when it was pointed out to him. GD***
From: TurquoizeZ@aol.com
Hello group-
I am an unspectacular undergraduate student (just chose English as my major)
so forgive me if what I ask is well-known among most of you. Its funny how
often queries to this group start with similar disclaimers, but of course we
are in some impressive company here so it isn't too surprising. I've read
only four novels of VN's novels but hope to soon devour them all (and reread
them many times of course, that is why I am so slow to get to the others -
all that time spent going over the works I have already read!)
I am just curious about who edited Nabokov, particularly with his American
works. And how they went about it. I imagine it would have been quite an
intimidating task, particularly as he slipped so many allusions and puns and
so forth that certainly an editor couldn't expect to understand all of it and
make out what wasn't intentional or didn't work. And when I mean editing I
mean less of the grammar stuff (although that too - how would one know an odd
sentence structure wasn't a reference to something-or-other work of
literature or just pure brilliance anyhow?) but the bizarre twists and turns
of plots as well. Or was Nabokov so established that his work was little
edited at all?
Just curious. Thanks for any insight.
Liz
***Most of this information, including Nabokov's frequent sparring with
his editors, can be found in _Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters_ and Brian
Boyd's _Vladimir Nabokov: American Years_. He _was_ edited, and in most
cases did not like it, and left his editors in no doubt as to how he
felt about it. Some editors took it better than others that he, a
non-native speaker and writer of English, was telling them, professional
language fixers, what proper usage was. But on rare occasions that he
truly made a non-native mistake, he was the first one to admit it and
laugh about it when it was pointed out to him. GD***