Dear Charles,

 

Not only am I not Gerald M. Friedman, the M-inent geologist,
I'm also not Jerome I. Friedman, a winner of the Nobel Prize
in physics.  I un-eminently teach physics and math at Santa Fe
Community College in New Mexico.  (Disclaimer: My employers
don't even know that I'm posting here, much less have any
opinions on Nabokov that I could conceivably be representing.)

 

"Jerry" was formerly a a common way to spell the nickname
for Gerald.  I'm not sure when the transition happened, but
/Pale Fire/'s Gerry (n. 949) may be part of it, as he got his
nickname around the same time I got my name and nickname.
Conceivably his use of the newer spelling says something about
him.  Also, I have the vague impression that the spelling
"Gerry" may have started in Ireland, which would go well with
"Emerald".

 

I for one would have a hard time participating in a
debate on whether "Pale Fire" is or contains poetry as
distinct from verse.  I've used that distinction myself,
but the boundaries now seem too vague and the distinction
not important enough to whether I like something.  I
agree with you, though, that the clash and harmony between
scholarship and poetry is important to Kinbote-and-Shade.
(Funny that Kinbote should like Housman, equally distinguished
as a scholar and a poet.)

 

Is Kipling's "The Conundrum of the Workshops" poetry?

 

Jerry Friedman