I'm not sure it's been recorded on the List that Don Harington died a few weeks ago at the age, as I recall, of 72. He was not only a fine novelist, he was a great admirer of Nabokov and was active on the List in the early days. It was at his suggestion that I became a member. The New York Times carried a good obituary.

Jim Twiggs

From: John Morris <morris.jr@COMCAST.NET>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Sat, January 23, 2010 10:07:24 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] competition for greatness among fictional poets

<S Gwynn: Other than VN, the only case that comes to mind in which a novelist has performed the not incosiderable feat of the former and provided the actual poetry is that of Anthony Burgess, who was, of course, as good a poet as he was a writer of prose. There may be other examples, but none comes to mind.>

I can add another contender to the list: In Donald Harington's 1972 novel, Some Other Place. The Right Place., his character Daniel Lyam Montross is provided by Harington with 62 pages of original poetry. The poems are clever but not very moving. Nonetheless, it's clear (at least to me) that, like VN, Harington is writing the best poetry he can, while also keeping the tone and style appropriate to his character Montross.

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