Don
Johnson sent “Nabokov’s manuscripts sold at auction in London.”
Did I miss the name of the institutions or people who acquired them, or are
these to remain anonimous? I was surprised in that the news caused me a
special discomfort, as if I’d been cheated of something that I ignored,
words getting loose like suddenly hatched butterflies I surmised were pinned
down and tagged for all eternity.
Recently
I bought the Brazilian edition of “Agatha Christie’s secret
notebooks, fifty years of mysteries in the making,” by John Curran (
2009), with the inclusion of two still-unpublished stories with Poirot. I
haven’t yet read it. The edition is not sophisticated, but there are
reproductions of manuscript pages and diagrams. In his introduction, Curran
describes Agatha Christie’s residence in Greenway and how he kept
recognizing in the casual objects on his way, a turn of a staircase, a vase, items
which had been key elements in Christie’s various detective novels. His
enthusiastic and extensive knowledge and love for Christie’s work is
catching (and fetching). One or two pages with scribbled letters and arrows of
her manuscripts, after he described what they contained, fairly leaped out of
the paper, without straying too far because held by my recollection of the
actual story the outline of which had seemed so inexpressive at first. I doubt
it that I’ll visit Greenway one day, or inquire deeper into the book I
have by me now. I don’t have a scholar’s dedication, nor a
collector’s orderly love. This is why Don Johnson’s news, the way
they affected me, came as a surprise. I hope all these valuable manuscripts
will be one day on display in Nabokov’s museum in St. Petersburg…
De: Vladimir Nabokov
Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] Em nome de Don Johnson
Enviada em: sexta-feira, 20 de agosto de 2010 12:18
Para: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Assunto: [NABOKV-L] London Sale of Nabokov chess materials
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