Charles wrote:
> Thinking about the enthusiasm with which VN has been
appropriated
> as an ?American? writer has prompted me, though no mathematician,
> to do some calculating. VN lived for 78/79 years. Of these, he
> spent 18 in Russia, 19 in America, and 42 in Europe --- Germany,
> England, France, Switzerland. Can we hope for a third biography:
> VN: The European Years? The Americanization of VN seems to me
> akin to the conversion of Anglo-Saxon into Old English, by the
> OED, in the years running up to the Great War: linguistically
> disreputable, and a most deplorable academic chauvinism.
While I'm not prepared to enter into a serious discussion of
whether VN was an American writer or not, it must be pointed out
that VN himself often commented on his "Americanness" in Strong
Opinions. Here's just one example of many:
pg. 26 Mc-Graw Hill 1973
Alvin Toffler: Though born in Russia, you have lived and worked for
many years in America as well as in Europe. Do you feel any strong
sense of national identity?
VN: I am an American writer, born in Russian and educated in
England....