Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006163, Mon, 24 Sep 2001 10:14:09 -0700

Subject
Dmitri Nabokov responds to Galya Diment re Poggioli article
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 18:12:21 +0200
To: nabokv-l@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU

Dear Galya,

A friendly comment on your comment to the Boston Globe piece on Sylvia Poggioli.

I am sure you do not mean to suggest there was any connection among

1) Renato Poggioli's hiring by Harvard;

2) Nabokov's assessment of Pasternak's translations of Shakespeare;

3) Poggioli's admiration of Pasternak. I am sure you know, VN did not
think or act invidiously or vindictively, as you eloquently illustrated in
your posting about VN and Dostoevsky.

I also hope you meant ZHIVAGO was competing with LOLITA in one arena only : the bestseller list.

There is a lot of bizarre apocrypha out there, such as the myth that Véra
Nabokov patrolled the Ithaca bookstores moving L. in front of Zh in the
window displays.

The Poggiolis were friends of ours, and I think I even took a course of
Poggioli's at Harvard (no sarcasm intended). One can (and often did) agree
to disagree with friends.


Best regards,

DN