Read Nabokov in America Online
Authors: Robert Roper
Nabokov in America (62 page)
74
“our native West”:
DBDV
, 357, March 30, 1958.
75
fabulously valuable and rare sports cars:
Roger Boylan, “Dmitri Nabokov, Car Guy,” Autosavant, November 2009,
http://www.autosavant.com/2009/11/24/dmitri-nabokov-car-guy
; Boylan, “Dmitri Nabokov, Car Guy: Take Two” Autosavant, 2010,
http://www.autosavant.com/2010/04/15/dmitri-nabokov-car-guy-take-two
.
76
Ping-Pong:
D.N., “Close Calls,” 320.
77
working all along for the CIA:
Dmitry Minchenok, http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia//2012_02_28/67099376/.
78
“dangerously shifting to the left”:
Ibid.
79
An American friend:
Interview with Barbara Victor, May 30, 2012. The author filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the CIA, among other agencies, and his
appeal of the CIA’s unforthcoming responses resulted in a declaration by the Agency Release Panel that, “with respect to records that would reveal a classified connection between the subject of your request and the CIA, if any, the ARP determined that, in accordance with Section 3.6 (a) of Executive Order 13526, the CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request.” CIA letter to author, August 28, 2013, Reference: F–2013–00275.
80
never told his father:
Minchenok.
81
“with new priorities”:
“Close Calls,” 320.
82
“a faster Ferrari”:
Ibid.
83
multiday races in the Mediterranean:
Schlesinger, “Journey Down the Tyrrhenian.”
84
“My dearest!”:
SL
, 353. Dmitri was sometimes called “Lolito” in the Italian press. He appeared in a movie and lent his name and Milan apartment to a casting competition for a young actress to play Lolita. “My father [happened] upon a magazine photo of the bevy of ‘finalists’ surrounding me on my oversized, satin-covered bed,” Dmitri wrote, and cabled the command, “STOP LOLITA PUBLICITY IMMEDIATELY.” “Close Calls,” 313. In
Ada
, the character Van Veen is a lanky playboy seducer; there is a suggestion of his singing lieder, as Dmitri did on
Russische Lieder
, an LP produced in Vienna in ’74.
Ada
seems dated in part, with milieus vaguely out of
Playboy
magazine;
Lolita
does not seem dated.
85
secret handshakes from the author:
Booth, 300–9.
86
“Pushkin’s critical acumen”:
EO
, vol. 2, 154.
87
“languorous”:
Ibid., 382.
88
“Good old Sylvia!”:
PF
, 248.
89
the books of his American period:
There is also a persuasive, verifiable Russian reality in
Speak, Memory
.
90
“its heat … the painful comedy of family relations in general”:
Dupee, “Introduction.”
91
an experiment:
Berg. N. read
An Experiment with Time
but also consulted Gerald Whitrow’s
The Natural Philosophy of Time
. Boyd 2, 487.
92
most unnerving instance:
There is no real evidence of Dunne’s precognition provided in his book; readers are convinced, rather, by his clubby gentleman’s tone of probity. N. borrowed from Dunne his perspicacity in reporting fugitive mental states.
93
“common features of my dreams”:
Berg. N. also wrote a personal dream typology.
94
“Am coming down steps”:
Berg, dream recorded December 4, 1964. In ’67, N. recorded another dream of Wilson: “Odd dream: somebody on the stairs behind me takes me by the elbows. E.W. Jocular reconciliation.” Boyd 2, 499.
95
Nabokov bursts into tears:
Berg, notes for “Speak On, Memory.”
96
remains levelheaded:
N. censors sex, too, recording in this vein only “Several dreams one of them keenly erotic, replay (for perhaps the five hundredth time) with perfect freshness a fugue of my early youth.” Berg, dream of October 14, 1964, 8:30 AM. And on December 13: “Interesting erotic dream. Blood on a sheat.” Berg.
Note: page numbers in italics refer to images. Those followed by n refer to notes, with note number for endnotes.
academic career.
See also
Cornell University; lecture tours (1942); Stanford University
influence on Nabokov,
(1)
lectures during first months in U.S.,
(1)
Nabokov’s plans for,
(1)
teaching/lecturing style,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
,
(5)
n
Acmeists, influence on Nabokov,
(1)
,
(2)
Ada
(Nabokov)
echoes of Dmitri Nabokov in,
(1)
n
geography of,
(1)
quality of,
(1)
sexual passages in,
(1)
Updike on,
(1)
n
affairs
echoes of in fiction,
(1)
Agee, James,
(1)
Aldanov, Mark,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
n,
(4)
n,
(5)
n
Alice in Wonderland
(Carroll), Nabokov’s translation of,
(1)
Allen, Frederick Lewis,
(1)
Alta Lodge (Utah),
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
America
European views on,
(1)
influence on Nabokov,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
mystery underlying, in Nabokov’s fiction,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
Nabokov on bright intellectual future of,
(1)
Nabokov on old-fashionedness of,
(1)
,
(2)
Nabokov’s acculturation to,
(1)
,
(2)
Nabokovs’ departure from,
(1)
Nabokov’s early interest in,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
Nabokovs’ experience of through son,
(1)
Nabokovs’ fondness for,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
Nabokovs’ life in, Véra’s overview of,
(1)
Promethean dreams inspired by,
(1)
unrest of 1960s, Nabokovs on,
(1)
zeitgeist of in Nabokov and Salinger,
(1)
,
(2)
America, Nabokovs’ move to.
See also
English language, Nabokov’s transition to
arrival in New York,
(1)
cost of tickets for,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
decline of literary production following,
(1)
Véra on,
(1)
invitation from Stanford and,
(1)
models for,
(1)
Nabokov’s education as preparation,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
repayment of ticket cost,
(1)
studies of U.S. prior to,
(1)
,
(2)n
visas, complexity of getting,
(1)
,
(2)n
,
(3)
American literature
captivity narratives in,
(1)
,
(2)
conscious literary echoes in,
(1)
,
(2)n
D. H. Lawrence on,
(1)
echoes of in
Lolita
,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
,
(5)
,
(6)
,
(7)
,
(8)
lurid streak in,
(1)
mystery underling reality in,
(1)
Nabokov’s affinities with,
(1)
Nabokov’s contribution to,
(1)
Nabokov’s familiarity with,
(1)
,
(2)
n,
(3)
,
(4)
n
Nabokov’s lecture-tour letters (1942) and,
(1)
Nabokov’s views on,
(1)
,
(2)n
,
(3)
and obscenity laws,
(1)
sexual frankness in,
(1)
spiritual dimension of reality in,
(1)
,
(2)
n
American Museum of Natural History
credentials provided to Nabokov,
(1)
,
(2)
Nabokov’s donations of butterflies to,
(1)
,
(2)
Nabokov’s publications on butterflies and,
(1)
Nabokov’s visits to,
(1)
Americans
as restless travelers,
(1)
and spiritual aspect of mountain climbing,
(1)
Nabokov’s friendships with ordinary,
(1)
,
(2)
Amis, Martin,
(1)n
Andrews, Roy Chapman,
(1)n
anti-Semitism
of mid-20th century English language authors,
(1)
Nabokovs’ U.S. experience of,
(1)
Véra’s alertness to,
(1)
n
appearance of Nabokov,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
,
(5)
,
(6)
n
Appel, Alfred Jr.,
(1)
Arizona, Nabokovs’ visits to,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
.
See also
Grand Canyon
artists, immortal, Nabokov on,
(1)
Atlantic Monthly
,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
,
(5)
automobile culture of U.S.
Nabokovs’ acculturation and,
(1)
and rise of motor courts,
(1)
Yosemite National Park and,
(1)
,
(2)n
,
(3)
automobiles owned by Nabokovs,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
n
Nabokov’s habit of writing in,
(1)
segmentation of time using,
(1)
Avinoff, Andrey,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
n
Bend Sinister
(Nabokov)
anticipations of
Lolita
in,
(1)
blended setting of,
(1)
complexity of style in,
(1)
income from,
(1)
later Nabokov introduction to,
(1)
Nabokov on theme of,
(1)
Nabokov’s distance from evil in,
(1)
Nabokov’s exhaustion after writing,
(1)
off-putting elements of,
(1)
plot of,
(1)
as political novel,
(1)
publication of,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
quality of,
(1)
successful portions of,
(1)
vulnerability of childhood as theme in,
(1)
Wilson and,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
,
(5)
Berkman, Sylvia,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
n,
(4)
n
Berlin, Isaiah,
(1)
Berlin, Nabokovs in
literary success,
(1)
poverty,
(1)
social life,
(1)
biographers of Nabokov,
(1)
Bishop, John Peale,
(1)
Bolshevism, Nabokovs’ hatred of,
(1)
,
(2)
,
(3)
,
(4)
,
(5)
,
(6)
Borges, Jorge Luis,
(1)
Bowles, Paul,
(1)n
Boyd, Brian
on American influence on Nabokov,
(1)
on
Bend Sinister
,
(1)
on Edmund Wilson,
(1)
on excellent discussion of the novels,
(1)
n
on impact of father’s death on Nabokov,
(1)
on Jannelli,
(1)
on Nabokov’s interest in young girls,
(1)n
on
Pale Fire
,
(1)
on Quilty’s play in
Lolita
,
(1)
on unknowability of other people,
(1)
