As for a suggested anagram of "Nikto"(Nobody) in Botkin, I would not dismiss it without closer consideration because it evokes the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus, and, hence, the corresponding episode of Ulysses as well as Innokentii Annensky's pseudonim Nik. T--o. An extra letter "B" is, of course, a hindrance but the associations are still rather tempting.
Alexander Dolinin
Dear Professor Dolinin,
Please forgive the lateness of my response - - your information on the con artist Botkin is fascinating - - and your reference to Polyphemus reminds me that the same joke is made, not in Alice in Wonderland where I was looking for it, but in "Through the Looking Glass" - - Alice
claims to see nobody coming down the road, eliciting the (red?) King's envy of her excellent vision. It's too bad Nabokov never translated the second Alice book.
Is the "B" really a hindrance? Victor Fet pointed out the perfect palindrome it allows to be formed - - & for which I thank him - - and though perhaps the spelling drops the vowel, could "nikto b' " not be translated "he would be nobody"?
Carolyn