EDNOTE. Some questions nag at one and ever quite go away. In 1997 I wrote a short piece on Nabokov's early English reading as revealed by _Speak Memory_ and occcasional references in his fiction. The item (with illustrations) may be found on ZEMBLA as "Nabokov's Golliwoggs: Lodi Reads English 1899-1909". The identification of at least one reference defied my best efforts to pin it down. My 1997 message below provides the relevant material from Chapter IV, section 1 of SPEAK, MEMORY. The reading text in question was apparently being used by one of Volodya's early English governesses and I searched sources on such text books to no avail--even going to the vast collection of such materials available for instructing children in Canadian libraries in hopes that English nannies in the outposts of the British Empire and elsewhere probably drew on texts used in English schools. No luck. A few years later, with the help of Saint Petersburg literary historian and Nabokophile Yevgeny Belodubrovsky I ransacked such holdings in the State Library in St. Petersburg. I also circulated the query below on NABOKV-L and other lists. When no leads came in, I decided the reference was perhaps to some "generic" reading primer and dropped the matter.

Today, in my post-prandial browse through the June 10, 2005 TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (p. 30), I skimmed a short review of Alan Davies' AN EYE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY: THE CAMERA IN AUSTRALIA. There I found reference to "... a shot of the bleak faces on ten Aboriginal children forced into a Queensland mission in 1893. They pose in a classroom while their teacher instructs cursive and spelling using a poster that says, 'Send Ben to bed. He is wet.'" SO--VN's recollection was apparently accurate but I still don't have an accurate citation for the reading primer that I would very much like to see. If anyone has any further information, please let me know. Meanwhile, I'll try some Australian sources.

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Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:09:43 -0700 Reply-To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU> Sender: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU> From: Donald Barton Johnson <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu> Subject: Nabokov's childhood reading (fwd)

Subject: Nabokov's first English reader?

I am attempting to identify the English primer from which Vladimir Nabokov learned to read English circa 1904. He describes it as "a brown volume" in which the early section was restricted to three-letter words. Its heroes were Ben, Dan, Sam & Ned: "Who is Ben?" "He is Dan," "Sam is in bed." "Ben has an axe." Near the text's end a simple story was presented: "One day Ted said to Ann: Let us---"

These are example sentences Nabokov recalled some 40 years later, so they may well be "illustrative" rather than accurate quotes. The book is probably British since his governess was. Although, he refers to it as "my grammar," the examples lead one to assume it was simply an elementary reader.

I would be most grateful for any suggestions. Is there perhaps a particular information source about the history of English primers that covers the turn of the century?

D. Barton Johnson Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies Phelps Hall University of California at Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825 Home Phone: (805) 682-4618