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Re: Tobakoff: addendum
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Alexey Sklyarenko :"...there is a sea journey and mention of Alexey Tolstoy in VN's Speak, Memory (Chapter Thirteen, 1): "On the way there [to England], being challenged by my father and Korney Chukovski to rhyme on Afrika, the poet and novelist Alexey Tolstoy (no relation to Count Lyov Nikolaevich) had supplied, though seasick, the charming couplet: Vizhu pal'mu i Kafrika./Eto - Afrika.(I see a palm and a little Kaffir. That's Africa.)."
JM: By coincidence, I'd just mentioned the same Alexey Tolstoy in the next Nab-post, quoting from a blog on cinema: " The Garin Death Ray was one of his most famous books (Vladimir Nabokov considered it his best)".
Nabokov's family connections to the novelist, in the early days, may have influenced him towards predominantly favorable comments. In "Strong Opinions" he considers Alexey.Tolstoy a: "writer of some talent with two or three science fiction stories or novels which are memorable." Their political divergences, later, were also brought up: "Once, in 1921 or 1922, at a Berlin restaurant where I was dining with two girls. I happened to be sitting back to back with Andrey Bely who was dining with another writer, Aleksey Tolstoy, at the table behind me. Both writers were at the time frankly pro-Soviet (and on the point of returning to Russia), and a White Russian, which I still am in that particular sense, would certainly not wish to speak to a bolsbevizan (fellow traveler).* I was acquainted with Aleksey Tolstoy but of course ignored him. As to Joyce, I saw him a few times in Paris in the late thirties.."(Nabokov's 1967 Wisconsin inverview)" www.kulichki.com/moshkow/.../Inter06.txt
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* - There's a touch (related to speaking to a bolsbevizan) in the Tobak/Veen snobbery, but not to Van's impromptu adage: "'If you collect adages,' persisted Van, 'let me quote an Arabian one. Paradise is only one assbaa south of a pretty girl's sash.' (3.2)" bringing a typically ornate Veen connection between paradise and ordinary sex.
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JM: By coincidence, I'd just mentioned the same Alexey Tolstoy in the next Nab-post, quoting from a blog on cinema: " The Garin Death Ray was one of his most famous books (Vladimir Nabokov considered it his best)".
Nabokov's family connections to the novelist, in the early days, may have influenced him towards predominantly favorable comments. In "Strong Opinions" he considers Alexey.Tolstoy a: "writer of some talent with two or three science fiction stories or novels which are memorable." Their political divergences, later, were also brought up: "Once, in 1921 or 1922, at a Berlin restaurant where I was dining with two girls. I happened to be sitting back to back with Andrey Bely who was dining with another writer, Aleksey Tolstoy, at the table behind me. Both writers were at the time frankly pro-Soviet (and on the point of returning to Russia), and a White Russian, which I still am in that particular sense, would certainly not wish to speak to a bolsbevizan (fellow traveler).* I was acquainted with Aleksey Tolstoy but of course ignored him. As to Joyce, I saw him a few times in Paris in the late thirties.."(Nabokov's 1967 Wisconsin inverview)" www.kulichki.com/moshkow/.../Inter06.txt
....................................................................................................................................
* - There's a touch (related to speaking to a bolsbevizan) in the Tobak/Veen snobbery, but not to Van's impromptu adage: "'If you collect adages,' persisted Van, 'let me quote an Arabian one. Paradise is only one assbaa south of a pretty girl's sash.' (3.2)" bringing a typically ornate Veen connection between paradise and ordinary sex.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/