How strange, funny, odd. I both admire and respect the Proffers and find Carl's "Keys" a great disappointment. Until this post I'll admit I didn't realize it was the same person. Somehow I never connected the Carl (and Elena) Proffer who aided refusednik physicist Mark Azbel (about whom I have written to the list on several occasions) with the Carl Proffer whose "Keys to Lolita" I find so lame. 

Odd.
Carolyn

p.s. One of the reasons I wrote to the list about Azbel, whose book Refusednik, Trapped in the USSR I continue to recommend to all - much better read in my opinion than SM - was that he knew of Nabokov while still in the Soviet Union. He had grown up reading the later banned classics of Russian and European literatures, because the Kiev of his Stalinist childhood was so disorganized that the public library still hadn't removed them from the shelves. Which reminds me of a lame joke I heard on the radio the other day: well, as Shostakovich used to say, let's quit stallin'.

From: "delossampson@COMCAST.NET" <delossampson@COMCAST.NET>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 7:59 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] ANNC: Symposium on Carl Proffer at U of Michigan Sept. 20-21

Carl's marvelous "Keys to Lolita" was published in 1968, but Page Stegner's "rather pallid" (Brian Boyd, VNAY p. 522) book "Escape into Aesthetics: The Art of Vladimir Nabokov" came out in 1966. I found a lot to take issue with in Stegner's book, starting with the title, but one has to admire his courage in offering the first monograph on Nabokov. I recall Professor Setchkarev's remark, ca. 1961 or 1962, when the possibility of writing on VN was mentioned: "On napishet takuiu antikritiku, chto Bozhe moi! (He would write, my God, what a critical riposte!) As far as I know, VN never offered an "antikritiku" to Stegner's book.

From: "English NABOKV-L" <nabokv-l@HOLYCROSS.EDU>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 9:06:54 PM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] ANNC: Symposium on Carl Proffer at U of Michigan Sept. 20-21

D. Barton Johnson sends this link to the symposium in honor of Carl Proffer:
http://www.ii.umich.edu/crees/events/specialevents/proffertribute
Don adds:
 
Carl was the first to publish a book about VN’s work. Ardis Press (which he and Ellendea launched) republished all of VN’s novels and much of the early scholarship.

--
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Co-Editor, NABOKV-L
 
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Google Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal" Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options Visit AdaOnline View NSJ Ada Annotations Temporary L-Soft Search the archive

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.