In my long friendship with Gene we shared various Nabokovian pleasures, the most spine-tingling of which occurred on the Connecticut shore in the 1980s. Gene had come to speak to my seminar at Wesleyan in early March. The next day we went for a long walk along the deserted beach--my husband was leading us to a distant promontory. Along the way Gene picked up one half of a conch shell and I the other; he said: this is the Greek etymology of “symbol” (to throw together), leading me to ask if he’d traced the shell motif through Nabokov’s novels. He hadn’t. I started my catalogue with Speak Memory, where Colette injures her foot on a mussel shell.

There was no one else like Professor Gennady Barabtarlo. I met him in person long after reading his books and profiting by them. The first time I spoke with him was at a dinner party hosted by Brian Boyd and Bronwen Nicolson to celebrate the conclusion of the Nabokov Upside Down Conference in Auckland in 2012. That first conversation took place on a warm and sunny terrace in the very middle of summer. 

A literary gift, like the gift of life, is given from above. Gennady Barabtarlo, who has just completed his life journey, was deeply appreciative of both – and of the One who sent them. He dedicated himself to Russian literature, especially to its two summits, Pushkin and Nabokov, in full awareness of the responsibility this commitment entailed. For him, language and letters were the vital force that kept the Russian mind and spirit alive.

Gene Barabtarlo was a gentleman, a conscientious and highly learned 
scholar, a great Nabokovian, an excellent linguist… and a friend. I 
first met him in June 1992. I had invited him to the first Nice 
Conference on Nabokov where he gave a paper entitled “Nabokov in the 
Wilson Archive.” I seem to remember that it was his first visit to this 
part of the world, one of Nabokov’s favorite haunts. He was constantly 
taking pictures, as he did again at the third Nice conference in 2006; 
after it, he went to Soliès-Pont and sent me pictures he had taken 
there. There was something of a Sherlock Holmes in him; he liked solving 

The news of Gennady Aleksandrovich Barabtarlo’s passing should not have caught me off-guard, but I must confess to finding myself lost for words at a moment that I knew would be coming. If I were to try to find a reason to my being at a loss today, I would have to attribute it to my irrational sense that Gennady Aleksandrovich’s rectitude, his convictions, and indeed faith would prove a bulwark against even the most potent and cunning of afflictions. No such luck, of course, but even in the haze of this sad, impossible day it is already becoming clear that this is not where this story ends.

Nabokov scholar Gennady Alexandrovich (“Gene”) Barabtarlo died on February 24, aged 70. 

Gennady Barabtarlo, 70, died peacefully at home on Feb. 24, 2019.

Visitation will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2019, at St. Luke the Evangelist Church, 1510 Audubon Drive, Columbia. Funeral services will follow at 1 p.m. at the church. Burial will be in Columbia City Cemetery. A memorial service is planned for a later date.

This volume seeks essays exploring the experiences of teaching Lolita in the #MeToo era. I hope to bring together responses to Nabokov’s art that blend pedagogy and critical analysis. After teaching the novel for many years, many of us have witnessed (and continue to witness) a fascinating shift in student responses to the text following the start of the #MeToo movement.

Sandra Cisneros wins the 2019 PEN Nabokov Prize. 

Please find the detailed announcement by going to "RESOURCES" and scrolling down to "PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS." The PEN Nabokov Prize winners are the top of the list. Or, take a shortcut by going directly here.

Dear Nabokovians:

It is my pleasure to announce the publication of the latest issue of The Nabokovian. I want to thank the editor of The Nabokovian, Priscilla Meyer, for this most recent issue. If you wish to follow the links, you will find it by going to "RESOURCES" and then scrolling down to The Nabokovian. You will find it under "complete back issues and current online issues."

Or, you can find it here:

https://thenabokovian.org/node/35562

I also take this opportunity to remind you all to renew your IVNS membership if you haven't done so already.

Dear Nabokovians:

As  promised, there will be a lot of announcements posted these next few days, so please check into TheNabokovian.org regularly.

Dear Nabokovians:

Happy New Year! 2019 holds great things in store for matters Nabokovian, some of which this message brings to your attention.

Paul Morris (U de St. Boniface) and Allan Reid (UNB) are seeking one or two additional members for a panel on Nabokov for CAS 2019.  Provisional titles of our own papers are "'Poetics of the Child' in Nabokov's Poetry" (Morris) and "'An Evening of Russian Poetry':  Interpreting Nabokov Interpreting Russian Poetry (and Culture)" (Reid).  Anyone interested in joining the panel is requested to contact us at pdmorris@ustboniface.ca and allanpreid1@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Dear Readers of TheNabokovian.org:

It is with great sadness that I post the message below from Alexey Filimonov informing us of the passing away of Boris Averin on January 4th of this new year. Boris Valentinovich will be sorely missed. Please also find below a poem written by Alexey commemorating Boris Valentinovich's life and contributions to the cultural life of St. Petersburg.

From Alexey Filimonov:

К сожалению, для нас  в Петербурге год начался с трагической вести, 4 января ушел из жизни набоковед Борис Аверин.

Our website continues to grow. Some key areas:

new links to Dieter E. Zimmer's marvelous Nabokov's Whereabouts page on his website, under both Chronology (Nabokov's Whereabouts offers a full chronology focused on where Nabokov lived and worked) and Places (where there is already also an incipient alphabetical list of places in Nabokov's life). 

more work done on the Quotations page and the Reading page

the Photographs page will soon have a range of photographs of Nabokov at various ages.

Maybe you'll have time not only to read these but to add to them over the Christmas break?

Brian Boyd

Congratulations to our member Agnès Edel-Roy for defending her PhD  entitled "Une démocratie magique: politique et littérature dans les romans de Vladimir Nabokov », at Université Paris Est-Créteil on Monday 19 November. 

We also wish to thank Agnès for the great amount of work she has devoted  to the French VN Society from its beginnings, as well as her extremely active involvement as a former President of the Society; the newsletter you receive each month being only one of her numerous contributions to the vitality of our association. 

Congratulations and many thanks dear Agnès ! 

The notes to ADA Pt 1 Ch 42 (34,000 words, a small book in themselves) are now available under the Annotations pages to members of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society. To become a member, click here.

These notes will become available after eight months on AdaOnline.

The next instalment, Pt 1 Ch 43, will become available on TheNabokovian.org in February 2019.

Brian Boyd

Call for Papers for The Nabokovian