Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004448, Tue, 5 Oct 1999 14:39:37 -0700

Subject
Kerouac & LOLITA: The Beats Go On. (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Phil Iannarelli for the item below.
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From: Iann88@aol.com

Southeby's New York has an auction on October 7, l999:" Allen Ginsberg and
Friends," which includes many possessions of Ginsberg and his friends. Among
the items if the personal copy of "Lolita" owned by Jack Kerouac.

Kerouac inscribed on half-title page of his "Lolita" -- 7th impression -- the
following:

"What decency really is, can never be outraged -- This is a great book by the
world's most honest and smartest, living writer."

The catalogue also quotes Kerouac to Ferlinghetti in l962: "Lolita" is a
classic of world literature and ranks with Joyce, Proust, Mann, and Genet in
the divine solipsism of modern literature."

Love that "divine solipsism of modern literature."

Phillip Iannarelli
Cleveland, Ohio