Subject
Re: Pnin Cover
From
Date
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> As a follow-up to the thread several weeks ago on Lolita covers, here
is
> a .jpg of the cover of my copy of Pnin.
>
> Jay Livingston
>
Thanks, Jay, for the nostalgic AVON 'Pnin' cover. It was clearly one of
VN's
favourites. I was taken to VN's letter dated Nov 25 1968 (pp 436-7,
Selected
Letters, 1940-1977, HBJ, 1989) to Heather Mansell of Penguin Books. On
Penguin's poposed blurb and cover design for PNIN, VN is wonderfully
pissed
off:
"Blurb: Delete the absurd referance to "McCarthyism" -- which is not a
particular phobia of mine, or Pnin's. I would also like to replace
'ludicrous progress' by 'bizarre progress.'
Design: Completely unacceptable. This corny caricature is meaningless,
badly
drawn and repulsive. Pnin is an attractive and admirable person. One
possibility of replacing that cartoon would be to use the very charming
design on the cover of the paperback edition published by Avon
Publications,
Inc., 575 Madison Ave., New York, if you can acquire it from them. Or
just
omit picture altogether."
Does anyone have a jpeg showing how Penguin eventually complied with
VN's
wishes?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
is
> a .jpg of the cover of my copy of Pnin.
>
> Jay Livingston
>
Thanks, Jay, for the nostalgic AVON 'Pnin' cover. It was clearly one of
VN's
favourites. I was taken to VN's letter dated Nov 25 1968 (pp 436-7,
Selected
Letters, 1940-1977, HBJ, 1989) to Heather Mansell of Penguin Books. On
Penguin's poposed blurb and cover design for PNIN, VN is wonderfully
pissed
off:
"Blurb: Delete the absurd referance to "McCarthyism" -- which is not a
particular phobia of mine, or Pnin's. I would also like to replace
'ludicrous progress' by 'bizarre progress.'
Design: Completely unacceptable. This corny caricature is meaningless,
badly
drawn and repulsive. Pnin is an attractive and admirable person. One
possibility of replacing that cartoon would be to use the very charming
design on the cover of the paperback edition published by Avon
Publications,
Inc., 575 Madison Ave., New York, if you can acquire it from them. Or
just
omit picture altogether."
Does anyone have a jpeg showing how Penguin eventually complied with
VN's
wishes?
Stan Kelly-Bootle
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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