Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002475, Thu, 16 Oct 1997 07:40:59 -0700

Subject
VN: Bibliography: First (Russian) edition of "Invitation to a
Beheading" (fwd)
Date
Body
Donald Barton Johnson wrote:
>
> From: Tom <tomp@sru.co.uk>
>
> Not long ago I had the exciting experience of holding a copy of the very
> first edition of "Priglashenie na kazn'" in my own little hands. At the
> bookshop in London where I found it, the bookseller claims that it's one
> of an original print-run of 400, of which about 300 were apparently
> destroyed by the Nazis. When I questioned the source of this information,
> he was rather unconvincing, and said he'd love to know if it was true or
> not. So, can anyone out there help?
>
> Oh, and if anyone out there wants to buy it, I can't remember how much it
> costs, except that it seemed a lot - two thousand and something pounds, or
> three thousand and something dollars, I think. E-mail me directly if you
> want any more details.
>
> Tom Pedrick
> tomp@sru.co.uk

I believe this is a case of "right story, wrong book": VN relates the
destruction of 300 out of 400 copies of the pre-war English translation
of Despair in the foreword to his post-war translation.

Hans van ter Toolen
From: MarktTraci <mt@noord.bart.nl>