Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004325, Fri, 13 Aug 1999 11:17:57 -0700

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VN BIBLIOGRAPHY: NABOKOV'S BLUES by Kurt Johnson & Steve Coates
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EDITOR's NOTE. Nabokov devoted an entire chapter of his autobiography to
his life-long passion for butterflies, including his years at Harvard's
Museum of Comparative Zoology. The German Nabokovian, Dieter
Zimmer, has done a splendid compilation of all of Nabokov's literary
butterflies--_A GUIDE to NABOKOV's BUTTERFLIES and Moths_ (Hamburg:
privately printed, 1996). Now a professional lepidopterist, Kurt Johnson,
and New York Times science journalist, Steven Coates, have combined forces
to write a sparkling volume of Nabokov's life as a lepidopterist and, even
more importantly, of how Nabokov's 1940s work on the South American
"blues" has, after years of neglect, been discovered to be of major
importance with far-reaching ecological implications. Lucidly presented,
this new volume will have equal appeal to "literary" Nabokovians and
readers interested in natural history. The volume is to appear in October.

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NABOKOV'S BLUES: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius by
Kurt Johnson & Steve Coates.
October, 1999 Cloth 368 pp. $27 Nonfiction Illustrated ISBN: 1-58195-009-8

August, 1999

One of the last of the gentleman-naturalists, Vladimir Nabokov, the
Russian-American author of Lolita and other enduring works of fiction, had
no formal training in biology, but during the 1940's was an acknowledged
expert on Blues, a diverse group of butterflies inhabiting some of the
remotest parts of Latin America. In 1945, while serving as curator at
Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, he published a radical new
classification of Blues, a paper that initially caused a stir in the
rarified field of lepidoptery. After the war, with the increasing movement
of science toward theory and specialization, his groundbreaking work was
largely forgotten, and with the publication of Lolita in 1958 Nabokov
himself turned away from formal scientific lepidoptery, though he never
gave up his great love of collecting butterflies.
It was nearly fifty years before scientists followed up on his pioneering
work, with a series of expeditions to the high Andes of South America.
What they found led not only to new thinking about Nabokov's place in
science, but to fresh insights on the global movement of species and the
threat of their extinction.

Part biography of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century,
and part scientific detective story, NABOKOV'S BLUES explores the rich and
varied place butterflies hold in Nabokov's fiction, as well as
far-reaching questions of biogeography and evolution, and the worldwide
crisis in ecology and biodiversity.

NABOKOV'S BLUES will be an October hardcover publication. 1999 has been
designated the International Nabokov Centennial year, with continuing
celebrations in New York, London, St. Petersburg, Switzerland, and
elsewhere.

Kurt Johnson is a widely published lepidopterist associated with the
Florida State Collection of Arthropods, and is a foremost expert on
Vladimir Nabokov's lepidoptery. Dr. Johnson lives in New York City, where
for fifteen years he was associated with the American Museum of Natural
History.

Steve Coates, an editor at The New York Times, has written articles and
book reviews for The Times and The Wall Street Journal on a variety of
cultural topics. He lives in New York City. Nabokov's Blues is both
authors' first book.

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Advance praise for NABOKOV'S BLUES:

"If Vladimir Nabokov had never written a line of fiction, he would have an
honored reputation as a naturalist, and an expert on a large group of
butterflies known as 'Blues.' He loved his butterflies as passionately as
his literature and both pursuits built the fullness of his life. Johnson
and Coates's biological expertise and keen understanding of Nabokov's work
allows us to integrate and understand one of the great figures of 20th
century art - and science."

- Dr. Stephen Jay Gould


" A view of Nabokov's science and art that is both eerily evocative and
stunningly new, that makes delectable reading without patronizing the
reader."

- Dmitri Nabokov

"Nabokov's Blues tells an astonishing story: a literary genius's
scientific discoveries, their fall into oblivion, their rediscovery and
extension almost half a century later. Vivid and varied, surprising and
thoughtful, wry and poignant, Nabokov's Blues will appeal to anyone with a
taste for adventure and contrast (a windswept Andean ridge, the hush of a
laboratory bench), and an interest in the ironies and accidents of
scientific discovery and in our knowledge of biodiversity that seems to be
expanding not quite as fast as our planet shrinks."

-Brian Boyd

Founded in 1987 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Zoland Books is an
independent publisher of fiction, poetry, general nonfiction, and art
books of literary interest. For more information on Nabokov's Blues
contact: Publicity Department, 617-864-6252; fax 617-661-4998. Visit
Zoland Books on the world wide web at www.zolandbooks.com. Zoland Books
is distributed to the trade by Consortium Book Sales & Distribution.
1-800-283-3572.