Subject
VN Bibliography
Date
Body
Russian scholars have been assiduously unearthing bits and pieces
of VN's imperial youth. Galya Diment has called my attention to a couple
of older items that I had missed. Both appeared in _Nashe nasledie_ ["Our
Heritage"] #1, 1991.
1) Olga Skonechnaya, "Nabobov v Tenishevskom uchilishche", ["N. at the
Tenishev School"], pp. 109-11. The author reports on VN's official records
(including his report card) from the private secondary school that the
future attended. She notes some discrepancies between the records and
information in VN autobiography and in Field's accounts. There is also
information on the school's curriculum, teachers, and several of VN's
school mates; 2) L.V. Rozental", "Neprimechatel'nye dostovernosti"
["Unremarkable Attestations"], pp. 103-108. Rozenthal (1894-1990), an art
historian, devoted many years to his eyewitness record of Russian culture
over his long life time. Three excerpts appear here: (1) "Aleksandr Blok"
tells of R.'s attendance at several readings by symbolist poet Alexander
Blok. The earliest was at the Tenishev School in 1910 when he himself was
a senior student and VN was newly enrolled. (Blok left heavy traces in
VN's early poetry---DBJ.) (2) "Kolya i Volodya" ["Kolya & Volodya]. Some
years later Rozenthal' becomes a tutor to Kolya Shustov who was a school
friend of the young Nabokov's and then, briefly, to VN himself. The memoir
gives a charming and distinctly underawed view of VN as a gymnasium
student and young poet. (3) "Zateya kniazia Tenisheva" ["Prince Tenishev's
Enterprise"]. Rozenthal, himself a former Tenishev student, given an
account of the founding of the unique school and of its rather eccentric
founder.
D. Barton Johnson, Editor
of VN's imperial youth. Galya Diment has called my attention to a couple
of older items that I had missed. Both appeared in _Nashe nasledie_ ["Our
Heritage"] #1, 1991.
1) Olga Skonechnaya, "Nabobov v Tenishevskom uchilishche", ["N. at the
Tenishev School"], pp. 109-11. The author reports on VN's official records
(including his report card) from the private secondary school that the
future attended. She notes some discrepancies between the records and
information in VN autobiography and in Field's accounts. There is also
information on the school's curriculum, teachers, and several of VN's
school mates; 2) L.V. Rozental", "Neprimechatel'nye dostovernosti"
["Unremarkable Attestations"], pp. 103-108. Rozenthal (1894-1990), an art
historian, devoted many years to his eyewitness record of Russian culture
over his long life time. Three excerpts appear here: (1) "Aleksandr Blok"
tells of R.'s attendance at several readings by symbolist poet Alexander
Blok. The earliest was at the Tenishev School in 1910 when he himself was
a senior student and VN was newly enrolled. (Blok left heavy traces in
VN's early poetry---DBJ.) (2) "Kolya i Volodya" ["Kolya & Volodya]. Some
years later Rozenthal' becomes a tutor to Kolya Shustov who was a school
friend of the young Nabokov's and then, briefly, to VN himself. The memoir
gives a charming and distinctly underawed view of VN as a gymnasium
student and young poet. (3) "Zateya kniazia Tenisheva" ["Prince Tenishev's
Enterprise"]. Rozenthal, himself a former Tenishev student, given an
account of the founding of the unique school and of its rather eccentric
founder.
D. Barton Johnson, Editor