[Carolyn Kunin sends this tidbit.  -- SES]
 
Lot Number: 216
 Author
 Title
 Year Published
 Place Printed
Author: NABOKOV, Vladimir (1899-1977).ed. M.L. Gofman
Title: Nabokov's working copy of the Sochineniia [Works] of Aleksander Pushkin (the centenary edition,  
Year Published: 1937
Place Printed: Berlin
Printed By: Speer & Schmidt
Description: NABOKOV, Vladimir (1899-1977). Nabokov's working copy of the Sochineniia [Works] of Aleksander Pushkin (the centenary edition, ed. M.L. Gofman, Berlin: Speer & Schmidt, 1937), ANNOTATIONS ON APPROXIMATELY 228 PAGES IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN, INCLUDING TO VIRTUALLY EVERY PAGE OF EUGENE ONEGIN, in ink and pencil, index card inserted with an extensive draft translation of the poem 'To [Anna Kern]', a few doodles, including one of a butterfly, one of a head in profile, another apparently of a chess problem, numerous other passages simply marked or numbered (heavily worn). Original roan (very worn, lower cover detached and repaired with old tape, lacking dust jacket).
Lot Note: NABOKOV'S PUSHKIN. A richly-annotated volume in which we witness Nabokov's response to Pushkin and see him on the cusp of his two languages. His annotations are at times simply technical notes or memoranda of translations of individual words -- in others he virtually notes a complete translation in the margin, in others again his notes more closely resemble a commentary, picking out literary effects ('The r[h]ythm of the duelist's grim advance, stressed by the thudding epithets "slowly, steadily" (tiho, rovno) is curiously anticipated at the end of the first part of Pushkin's earlier poem The Caucasian captive ...'). The most substantial annotations are to 'Vol'nost' [Liberty], 'Razgovor Knigoprodavtsa s Poetom' [The Bookseller's Conversation with the Poet], 'K' ***' [To *** -- here Nabokov translates a difficult opening into English, German and French], 'Epigramma (Iz antologia)' [Epigram (from an anthology)], 'Vospominanie' [A Recollection; here Nabokov makes a long commentary in Russian, rather than a translation]; 'Geroi' [A Hero]; 'Oda LVI' [Ode LVI]; 'Podrazhanie Arabskomu' [Imitation of an Arab; a lengthy abortive translation with cancellations and erasures]; some commentary at the end of Part I of 'Kavkazskii Plennik' [The Caucasian Captive]; annotations throughout 'Evgenii Onegin' [Eugene Onegin]; and marginalia in 'Pikovaia Dama' [The Queen of Spades]. Nabokov had published versions of Pushkin as early as 1945; his translation of Eugene Onegin was to follow in 1965.
References:
Provenance: by descent from Vladimir Nabokov. -
Estimated Price: GBP 12,000.00 - 18,000.00 (USD 19,221.36 - 28,832.04)
Actual Price: Unknown

Auction House: Christie's 
Website: www.christies.com 
Auction Name: Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books 
Sale Number: 7854 
Place:  
Auction Date: 6/2/2010-6/2/2010
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