Dear List,
Dmitri's question led me back to Boyd's "Nabokov's Pale Fire," where I
thought I remembered reading the sought-after conclusive information,
but that only led back to Dmitri himself: on page 115 Boyd paraphrases
his message to the list dated January 8, 1998 (#14 in that month in the
archives). That is probably the the most definitive case for in-house
invention not taking place that I have come across...but on further
reflection it may also be the only one that I have seen (in my limited
reading).
will dane