Nabokov

Nabokov, Vladimir: Look at the Harlequins! NY McGraw-Hill Book Company 1974
ISBN: 0-07-045738-7 Fine in Fine Dust Jacket Dust Jacket Design By Robert L. Mitchell; Dust Jacket Photograph By Halsman; Book Design By Stan Drate

x, 254pp. Black cloth, red gilt spine lettering, blindstamped front cover lettering, red endpapers. Dust jacket price 7.95. SIGNED BY AUTHOR to half-title page. " Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (April 22 [O.S. April 10] 1899, Saint Petersburg - July 2, 1977, Montreux) was a Russian-American author. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English. He is also noted for having made significant contributions to lepidoptery and created a number of chess problems. Nabokov's Lolita (1955) is frequently cited as one of the most important novels of the 20th century. It is his best-known work in English, probably followed by the singularly structured Pale Fire (1962). Both of these works exhibit Nabokov's love of wordplay and descriptive detail." - wikipedia. "LATH will not go down as Nabokov's most memorable or widely-read work. In fact, if it weren't for the novels that preceded it, it would probably be forgotten. And it's not a work I would recommend to anyone who hasn't already read most of N's other fiction. But to a diehard Nabokovian, LATH offers enough pleasures to make the read (and the wait) worthwhile. Yes, it appears to be a "fictionalized" autobiography of Nabokov, with some key changes (Nabokov professed to be most content with life, while the same could not be said for LATH's protagonist-cum-"author", Vadim Vadimovich). Thus, one will not get much out of the book unless one has read N's other work and knows a bit about his life. What make this novel truly enjoyable are (a) N's trademark wordplay (not as great as in "Lolita" and "Ada", but still magnificent); (b) small moments of genuine joy (as in the coy but cute resolution of Vadim's psychological conundrum); and (c) some excellent Nabokovian narrative tricks: Vadim feels he is living someone else's life and at one point appears to be on the verge of realizing that he is, in fact, Vladimir Nabokov (try wrapping your mind around that!)--only to have the epiphany slip away. LATH should (as another reviewer recommended) be saved for last. Those who do get around to reading it, though, will almost surely enjoy it. I get a kick just thinking of the old guy--pushing 75, but still as vibrant and full of tricks as ever. That he never won a Nobel Prize is a terrible shame." - a reader. Book is in fine condition, tight and unread [minor bump to top corner front cover; slight hints of rubbing to dust jacket corners]. Signed by Author First Edition Fine Hard Cover 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

[SW: LITERATURE FIRST EDITIONS]

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Nabokov, Peter: WHERE THE LIGHTNING STRIKES: THE LIVES OF AMERICAN INDIAN SACRED PLACES, New York Viking Adult 2006
ISBN: 0-670-03432-0 As New Condition

According to UCLA professor Nabokov (Native American Testimony), the places that American Indians call sacred may be as wondrous as "cliffs spilling with waterfalls" and as humble as "caves splattered with bat excrement." What makes them important is not postcard-perfect beauty but the beliefs a group has about "what lies within or beneath what the eye can see." <P> This excellent volume presents the "biographies" of 16 such places, from Maine to California. Through them, Nabokov surveys a wide range of Native American spiritual practices and reveals how intrusions into Native Americans' land have also constituted assaults upon their religious beliefs. Indeed, many of the assaults continue to this day: after the disruptions caused by war, disease, missionary activity and forced relocation came those of hydroelectric dams, agribusiness, parking lots and extreme sports buffs. Nabokov's deeply informed text is enhanced by first-person accounts of his visits to the locations and by his spirited commentary on the writings of other ethnographers, naturalists, linguists and anthropologists. Sentimental cliches and monolithic views are dismantled along the way. Each of Nabokov's biographies can be savored separately; taken together, they demonstrate both that there is "more to some American places than [meets] the eye" and that Native Americans have known that for a very long time. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Nabokov present 16 "biographies of place," each of a habitat illustrating the bond between North American Indian cultures and their environment perpetuated by myths, legends, and rituals. He maps out some of the thousands of mounds in the Midwest thought to express cosmological beliefs and recounts multiple visits by an anthropologist in the 1930s to a Canadian Ojibwa enclave "caught in a time capsule" manifested by its all-consuming ties to the natural world. An account of the 1906 trek made by Indians from Taos Pueblo to Blue Lake opens a window onto the significance of that glacial pool, from which current residents believe their earliest ancestors emerged. Nabokov's case for the return of the Black Hills to the Lakota and Cheyenne is based on his explication of a book of 400 drawings by an Oglala Sioux who, 100 years ago, depicted hills, caves, and rock art still considered sacred today. The author's careful documentation of unbroken reverence for these sacred places powerfully illuminates Native American attachment to the earth itself. Hardcover 9.1 x 6 x 1.4 inches

[SW: american history, native american studies, native american, indian history, indians, native american history, plains, testimony, the west, united states, western united states]

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Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov's Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings. London, UK: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 2000
xiv,783pp., 27 colour + black & white illustrations. "Nabokov's Butterflies" presents Nabokov's twin passions of literature and lepidoptera through a vast array of novel selections, stories, poems, screenplay, autobiography, criticism, lectures, articles, reviews, interviews, letters, and notes, interspersed with a wealth of beautiful and fanciful drawings by Nabokov and photographs of him in the field. Previously unpublished material includes a translation of an appendix to the novel "The Gift". "My pleasures are the most intense known to man: writing and butterfly hunting." Vladimir Nabokov, "Strong Opinions" ~~~ Author(s): Vladimir Nabokov; Binding material: Cloth; Binding state: Original binding; Binding style: Full; Class: Hardback copy; Condition: Mint; Edition: First UK; Editor(s): Brian Boyd, Robert M. Pyle; Illustrated; Jacket condition: Mint; Language: English; Pages: 783; Publication year: 2000; Size: Quarto; Translator(s): Dmitri Nabokov..

First UK, Hardback copy, Quarto, Mint

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Nabokov, Vladimir. ARCHIVE OF CORRESPONDENCE. Signed. Palo Alto, Wellesley, Cambrige, Berkely September 1941 - August 1945. 1945

A delectable little file of correspondence [with Professor George R. Noyes] dating from Nabokov's earliest residence in the United States, providing insight into his preoccupations and the conditions he faced establishing his credibility in America. Presumably, there were few people in the United States to whom Nabokov could direct these early assertions. (There are only 16 letters in the Edmund Wilson file earlier than the earliest offered in this dossier.) All the letters in this particular file, inclusive of the facsimile, are directly related to Nabokov's professional life and in particular, provide an early, detailed discussion of the principles and intentions within two of his works of this period. 1. Als. 9.IX, 41. Palo Alto. Beginning, "Dear Professor Noyes". The text of this letter is in Russian. 9 Lines. - To the prominent professor of Slavic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Nabokov arrived in New York from Europe May 28, 1940. His first year in America was o ccupied with research at the Museum Of Natural History classifying butterflies, free-lance book reviews steered to him by his recent friend, Edmund Wilson and with preparing lectures for the lecture circuit roster of the Institute Of International E ducation. On May 26, 1941 he left for California and a summer delivering lectures at Stanford University in creative writing, drama and Russian Literature. On returning to New York, Nabokov was greeted by a telegram inviting him to the position of R esident Lecturer in Comparative Literature at Wellesley College, his first full-time job in the United States. The present letter mentions Wellesley. Nabokov had sought out Noyes as an influential scholar of Russian Literature in the hope that he mi ght help him secure a professorship in the United States. (Signed: V. Nobokov) 2. Tls. January 22, 1942. Wellesley, Mass. - A short note to Noyes (9 lines), thanking him for the gift of his recent book and for a long letter Noyes had written Nabok ov about, Sebastian Knight. "I composed it four years ago in Paris and it was the first novel I wrote straight in English". (Signed: V. Nobokov) - 3. Tls. 24, October, 1945. Cambridge, Mass. - 2pp. addressed to Noyes in which Nabokov discusses an aspect of license which he had taken in his translation of Pushkin's poem, Mozart And Salleri, (pp. 21, Three Russian Poets), and to which Professor Noyes had drawn attention. Nabokov goes on to clarify his contention that deliberate moralizing in a work of art destroys its value as literature no matter how skillfully written. This was in response to exceptions Noyes had taken with the concept of morality in literature as he read it in Nabokov's study, Gogol, (1944-New Directions). Nabokov co ncludes thanking Noyes for his efforts in securing him a position at Berkeley. "I am glad you understand that I should not be offered a low-salaried job". (Signed: V. Nobokov) 4. Tls. 6, October, 1945. Cambridge, Mass. - Facsimile of a letter fro m Nabokov to Noyes on Noyes' typewriter. Nabokov mentions sending copies of his Gogol and Three Russian Poets to Noyes, continuing with his experiences teaching at Wellesley and outlining his assets to the position of lecturer in Russian Literature and concludes with the hope that the opportunity to teach at Berkeley may soon arise. Noyes replies that he is sending a copy of Nabokov's letter to two of his colleagues. (In all probability, Noyes forwarded the original to a colleague, as only the facsimile survives in the archive). - 5. Tls. August, 1945. Carbon. 3pp. Berkeley, Ca. - Noyes offers his impressions and evaluation to Nabokov regarding two (2) books Nabokov had forwarded, Gogol and Three Russian Poets, discusses Tolstoy and Nab okov's possible misuse of a Latin verb. The remainder of the letter deals with an explanation of the situation in the department of Slavic Studies at Berkeley providing an outline of salaries and the likelihood of impending vacancies and conveys the impression that he does hope to help Nabokov secure a position. (Signed George R. Noyes)

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