Dear Jenny & list,

The closest thing I can think of is Speak, Memory's caption of a photograph (it's on page 257 of the Putnam edition and on page 597 of the Library of America -- don't have the Vintage):

"My wife took, unnoticed, this picture, unposed, of me in the act of writing a novel in our hotel room... 

"Many years ago, in St. Petersburg, I remember being amused by the Collected Poems of a tram conductor, and specially by his picture, in uniform, sturdily booted, with a pair of new rubbers on the floor beside him and his father's war medals on the photographer's console near which the author stood at attention. Wise conductor, farseeing photographer!"

Best,

Juan

PS - Doesn't sound so much like a dig as just amusement at how much can be revealed or remembered from a single image (right before the paragraph on the tram conductor, Nabokov writes, "Seldom does a casual snapshot compendiate a life so precisely.")

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Nabokv-L <nabokv-l@utk.edu> wrote:


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: searching for Nabokov dig at American writers' dustjackets?
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:45:54 -0800
From: Jenny Schuessler <schuessler@NYTIMES.COM>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
CC: Jenny Schuessler <schuessler@NYTIMES.COM>


Thi
Hello,
I am trying to track down a vaguely recollected dig Nabokov made at American writers who on their
dustjackets self-consciously trumpet their experiences driving a milk truck, working on the docks,
picking corn, etc. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
Thanks,
Jenny Schuessler

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--
Juan Martinez
-- http://fulmerford.com

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