Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006415, Thu, 28 Feb 2002 14:23:28 -0800

Subject
[Fwd: Re: [Fwd: copies of "Poems & problems" and "Poems"]]
Date
Body
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Fwd: copies of "Poems & problems" and "Poems"]
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 13:34:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@yahoo.com>
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--- "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net> wrote:
> ------------------
> Message text written by Vladimir Nabokov Forum
> >I'm trying to locate a copy, at reasonable cost, of "Poems and
> problems"
> and "Poems" (1959). (I've tried Amazon and Alibris, but no luck). Can
> anyone explain, A) where I might look;

Since everyone has been so discouraging, maybe I should remind you that
you can borrow either book by interlibrary loan. At least that's how
I read _Poems and Problems_. Doing so will also give you a chance to
think about the ethics of photocopying short, out-of-print, and
expensive books.

> and, B) how it is that, given the
> increasing popularity of our hero, his published poetry has been allowed
> to reside in relative obscurity?

If I can guess, I'd say that the market for poetry isn't very good, and
the market for poetry written in Russian and translated into English,
even by the author, is particularly poor. Also, people interested in
buying literary (as opposed to greeting-card) poetry probably look for
the authors they liked in their high-school or college anthologies.
I'll be surprised if anyone tells me VN's poetry appears in any of
those anthologies in English.
...

Jerry Friedman

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