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EDNOTE. Those wishing to help Saint-Petersburg Nabokov Museum may contact the
friendsofnabokov@sbcglobal.net or Friends of Nabokov, Inc., P.O. Box 41146,
San Jose, CA 95160. Contributions from the U.S. are tax-deductable.
----- Original Message -----
From: Sandy P. Klein
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/8282118.htm
Posted on Fri, Mar. 26, 2004
NABOKOV MUSEUM IS NO BESTSELLER
By Mark McDonald
Knight Ridder
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- They come like pilgrims, wide-eyed and reverent, clutching their copies of ``Lolita'' or ``Pale Fire,'' sniffing the stale air in the elegant old rooms off Bolshaya Morskaya Street, sniffing as if they're trying to catch the scent of the legendary novelist Vladimir Nabokov.
But the Nabokov faithful -- along with the great man's Scrabble board, his pencil stubs and butterfly-hunting jacket -- are facing eviction. The private Nabokov Museum hasn't paid any rent for the past five years, and the city, which owns the building, is demanding $23,000.
Appeals to the governor for a stay of execution have gone unanswered, and a court hearing has been scheduled for April 12.
``The people who set up the museum weren't legal experts, and they made some mistakes,'' said museum curator Elena Kuznetsova. ``But we're not like the other museums in the city. The government gives us no assistance.''
``We're still hoping for a benefactor to save us,'' said Tatiana Ponomareva, museum director.
One longtime benefactor, Terry Myers, a not-wealthy technical editor at Pratt & Whitney Aerospace in San Jose, has promised $10,000 of his own money. Myers, whose fascination with Nabokov began as a teenager, has already donated some of the museum's best items, including a number of first editions.
``Not to have a permanent monument recognizing Nabokov's genius will reflect poorly on the city government,'' Myers said. ``By honoring him, the city would be honoring all the great Russian emigre writers, artists, musicians and scholars who were forced to die abroad in obscurity because of Soviet repression and neglect.''
The museum, which subsists mainly on the sale of 75-cent admission tickets, is effectively bankrupt. There's no money to expand the first-floor exhibits to the upper floors of the house, which are occupied by the Nevsky Times newspaper. Vladimir's third-floor bedroom is now the advertising department, and the editors keep their dishes and teacups in the family's old wall safe.
The museum doesn't even have money for security guards and decent display cases. Not that there's much to steal: The premium items -- including Nabokov's field jacket and Myers' first editions -- are locked away in storage.
Nabokov was born in the three-story mansion in 1899. He wrote his first book there at age 17, a collection of dewy love poems that his family paid to have published. The poems were written in English, which was young Vladimir's first language, thanks to his English governesses and tutors.
The Nabokovs were fabulously wealthy -- one grandfather owned Siberian gold mines and another was the minister of justice. They had 50 servants in the house, an elevator, and one of St. Petersburg's first telephones. They also had three cars, including a Rolls-Royce. In 1915, not even the czar had a Rolls.
The family fled Russia in 1917, just ahead of the Bolshevik Revolution, and Vladimir later moved to England, Berlin and Paris. As World War II was breaking out, he and his wife, Vera, went to the United States, where he took up a series of teaching positions at Stanford, Wellesley and Cornell.
He published ``Lolita'' in the United States in 1958. The story of a middle-aged man's erotic obsession with his 12-year-old stepdaughter, the book caused a sensation. The notoriety of the novel would overshadow Nabokov's other works, but it also earned him wealth, international attention and a wider audience.
In 1961, the Nabokovs moved to Montreux, Switzerland, to be closer to their son, Dmitri, an opera student in Geneva. From a suite in the Palace Hotel, Nabokov wrote two of his most acclaimed novels -- ``Pale Fire'' and ``Ada,'' which he considered his best work.
He never returned to Russia and died in Switzerland in 1977, with his books still banned in his homeland and with the fall of communism still more than a decade away.
Over the years, his original home was used as a morgue and the headquarters of the municipal laundry. At one point, it also housed the Soviet censorship committee that banned Nabokov's works.
Nabokov's younger sister, Olga, visited the family home in 1948, and when she entered the foyer, a young communist guard asked her what she wanted.
``I used to live in all these rooms,'' Olga said.
``Well, mother,'' the guard replied, ``it's a different time now. Go home.''
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Contact Mark McDonald at mmcdonald@ krwashington.com.
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