Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011670, Wed, 10 Aug 2005 09:35:28 -0700

Subject
Fwd: Vera Nabokov denied any role in her husband's work ...
Date
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EDNOTE. A very belated review of the Stacey Schiff bio of Vera Nabokov. The
paperback edition is probably plentiful in used book stores now and well worth
adding to your Nabokov shelf.
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----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2005 13:14:10 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: Vera Nabokov denied any role in her husband's work ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1123235768290520.xml&coll=7[2]
BEING MRS. NABOKOV
OregonLive.com, OR - 12 hours ago
Vladimir NABOKOV dedicated all of his books to his wife of 52 years,
Vera. ... She refused to allow NABOKOV\'S first biographer to write
that she loved her husband. ...
[3]

BEING MRS. NABOKOV

VERA NABOKOV DEALT WITH THE WORLD WHILE HER HUSBAND WROTE HIS
MASTERPIECES AND WANTED NO CREDIT FOR IT Sunday, August 07, 2005
JEFF BAKERTHE OREGONIAN

Vladimir Nabokov dedicated all of his books to his wife of 52 years,
Vera. He called her his first and ideal reader. She typed everything
he wrote, often as he dictated to her from note cards, and frequently
made editorial suggestions. She served as his secretary, chauffeur and
literary agent, and supported him financially for many of the early
years of their marriage.

But Vera Nabokov denied any role in her husband's work and attempted
to remove all traces of herself from the historical record. She
handled the bulk of Nabokov's correspondence, writing letters in his
name for his signature while assuring everyone she did no such thing.
She refused to allow Nabokov's first biographer to write that she
loved her husband. She attempted, as Stacy Schiff writes in "Vera
(Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)," to hide in full view and "raised Being Mrs.
Nabokov to a science and an art and then pretended that such a person
did not exist."

Writing a biography of a person who didn't want any attention drawn
to herself, who simultaneously deferred to her husband and stood in
front of him, protecting him from those who would make demands on his
time and his genius, is a challenge. Schiff accepted the challenge
eagerly, over the warnings of Nabokov scholars, and was rewarded when
"Vera" won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2000. The idea of a new
approach and of writing about a couple was appealing, Schiff said
during a recent visit to Portland to promote her new book "A Great
Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America."

"When I set out to do it, I wanted to do something different,"
Schiff said. "I sort of figured out how to do it as I was doing it.
In the previous biographies of Nabokov, she was this great hole at
the center of the story, even though both (previous Nabokov
biographers) talked about her and acknowledged her importance to his
life."

It is difficult to overstate Vera Nabokov's importance to her
husband's life. She served as his assistant when he lectured at
Wellesley and Cornell (she typed the lectures, of course) and
substituted for him when he was away. She drove him across the
country (he never learned to drive) when he went searching for
butterflies and left him alone in the car when he wrote "Lolita." She
pulled the manuscript of "Lolita" from the fire when Nabokov attempted
to burn it in 1948. She did incredible amounts of research,
translation, transcription and correspondence.

What was her reward? The work, and the marriage. She believed
without qualification that Nabokov was the greatest writer in the
world; when others came to that opinion after "Lolita" was published
in the U.S. in 1958, she wondered what had taken them so long. She
reveled in the acclaim Nabokov received during the last 20 years of
his life, not because she felt it justified her life but because she
believed he deserved it.

Many who knew the Nabokovs described their marriage as a great love
story. Nabokov was unfaithful early in the marriage but recognized
his wife's place at the center of his life and said he couldn't
imagine living without her or never meeting her. On their 50th
anniversary, he wrote, "Here we are at last my darling," and
illustrated the dates with a beautiful drawing of a butterfly.

Jeff Baker: 503-221-8165; jbaker@news.oregonian.com[4] . [5]


Links:
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[1] http://www.oregonlive.com/
[2]
http://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1123235768290520.xml&amp;coll=7
[3]
http://ads1.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.oregonlive.com/////Click/OREGONLIVE/OR_FOOTER/clck06.htm/
[4] mailto:jbaker@news.oregonian.com
[5]
http://ads1.advance.net/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.oregonlive.com/////Click/OREGONLIVE/OR_FOOTER/clck06.htm/

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