Subject
"a nice generation of refugees"
From
Date
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I have been looking through Stephen Spender's _Journals_ and came across
a 1958 entry which, though about Nicolas Nabokov, would have
probably amused his cousin to no end.
Spender wrote a libretto for Nicolas Nabokov's opera RASPUTIN'S END and
was in Louisville, Kentucky, for its first performance. Afterwards, at a
reception that followed, he was seated next to a local "high society" lady
who reportedly said: "Now I like Mr. [Nicolas] Nabokov. He belongs to a
nice generation of refugees who came out of their countries after
the First World War. They knew their place and they took jobs as
waiters and taxi drivers. Today refugees aren't like that. They come into
your house and complain because they aren't waited on."
Let this borrowed pearl be my belated gift to Timofey Pnin on his 100th
birthday!
Galya Diment
a 1958 entry which, though about Nicolas Nabokov, would have
probably amused his cousin to no end.
Spender wrote a libretto for Nicolas Nabokov's opera RASPUTIN'S END and
was in Louisville, Kentucky, for its first performance. Afterwards, at a
reception that followed, he was seated next to a local "high society" lady
who reportedly said: "Now I like Mr. [Nicolas] Nabokov. He belongs to a
nice generation of refugees who came out of their countries after
the First World War. They knew their place and they took jobs as
waiters and taxi drivers. Today refugees aren't like that. They come into
your house and complain because they aren't waited on."
Let this borrowed pearl be my belated gift to Timofey Pnin on his 100th
birthday!
Galya Diment