Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006454, Wed, 27 Mar 2002 09:32:11 -0800

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[Fwd: Query: McGraw-Hill & VN & the History of the Book]
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Query: McGraw-Hill & VN & the History of the Book
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 11:14:03 -0500
From: "Juan Martinez" <jmm80625@mail.ucf.edu>

Hi!

A few weeks back I posted a general query on Nabokov and History of the
Book as an object. Thank you for the wonderful replies. They were all
useful and made me realize that if I were to do any justice to the
subject, I'd have to narrow it down considerably.

I'm writing the paper on Nabokov's McGraw-Hill years. I've found tons of
useful information on the _Selected Letters_, Boyd's _American Years_,
Frank Taylor's letters from the Lilly library manuscript collection, and
assorted articles (the McSweeney's essay has proved, on a second
rereading, just as wonderful and informative as I remembered).

I'm looking for help in finding sources for a couple of questions:

- McGraw-Hill's hardback and paperback sales during Nabokov's time. I'm
looking for how their trade division did overall, and how it did when
compared with the company's far larger textbook division.

- Sales figures for Nabokov's McGraw-Hill books.

- Information on the person or persons responsible for the design for
Nabokov's McGraw-Hill hardbacks and paperbacks. They were all fairly
uniform and rather lovely.

- Insights into McGraw-Hill's decision to pursue the "trade" trade - -
to expand their fiction and humanities market - - and on how that
division did while Nabokov was on board and later on.

- Scans of the McGraw-Hill editions. I already have hardbound copies of
_King, Queen, Knave_ and _Glory_, and paperback copies of _Details of a
Sunset_ and _Poems and Problems_. Any others would be appreciated.

Thanks again for everything. If you could help out I'd be really
grateful.

Cheers,

Juan

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