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Letter in October (1956) - VN to J. Epstein
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THIS DAY IN "LETTRES"1 OCTOBER (1956): VLADIMIR NABOKOV TO JASON EPSTEIN
1 October (1956): Vladimir Nabokov to Jason Epstein -
theamericanreader.com/1-october-1956-vladimir..
October 1, 1956, Ithaca
(excerpts)
Dear Mr. Epstein,I have just received the sketches. They are executed with talent, the picture as art goes is first-rate, but in regard to my Pnin it is wrong: The sketch looks like the portrait of an underpaid instructor in the English department or like a Republican's notion of a defeated Adlai, when actually he should look like a Russian muzhik clean-shaven. I am sending you some photographs of Pnin-like Russians... The glasses should be definitely tortoise-shell ones, with heavier, somewhat squarish frames...The nose is very important. It should be the Russian potato nose, fat and broad, with prominent nostril curves. See Zhukovski for nostrils, and Obrastsov for a replica of Pnin's fat glossy organ; but Pavlov and Maslov are also good. The terribly important space between nose and upper lip. This must be simian, large, long... The shoulders should be very broad, square, padded. Pnin wears a ready-made American suit of four years age...Everything you have done for LOLITA until now delights me. I hope you will publish the thing in its entirety some day.I approve in advance whatever selection you make for the Anchor Review...Sincerely yours,Vladimir Nabokov
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