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Re: Illustrated Nabokov? Maybe...
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: Illustrated Nabokov? Maybe...
Dear Phil Howerton,
You have raised a subject very dear to my heart. I confess that I hadn't thought of Nabokov as being a good subject for illustration, but Pnin and other pre-Lolita works lend themselves very nicely. I can even "see" Pale Fire: bird-and-pane, an escutcheon, a chateau in the Midi, etc.
I have been working with an excellent artist named Mary Kuper for several years and we have produced (but not published yet) the first two in our series of "Illustrated Fairy Tales for Adults."
The first collaboration was my translation of the original 1740 version of La Belle et la Bete (ostensibly by Madame Suzanne Gabrielle de Villeneuve, but my research shows probably in collaboration with the rakish Crebillon fils) and the second is a story about a child lost in Czechoslovakia during the second world war, Seven by Katherine Winter. Other works we are thinking about include Isaak Dinesen's "The Monkey" and Flaubert's St Julien (which even Flaubert wished to have printed with an illustration of a particular stained glass window).
I don't yet know how to post a scan to the List, but if you would like to see some examples of Mary's work, please check out these two sites:
Mary's etchings
http://www.numasters.com/artists/gallery/view_artworks.asp?sup_id=283&sid=inactive
an oil painting
http://www.artistsinresidence.co.uk/service.htm
There are other examples of course. A few that come to mind: Mervyn Peake illustrated his own Gormenghast trilogy; Voltaire's Candide in Rockwell Kent's beautiful edition was recently re-published (and is available for a ridiculously low price at a discount house on the internet); there are several books illustrated by Barry Moser's wood engravings, including The Bible and of course many fine press books. A novel by Sena Jeter Naslund Ahab's Wife is beautifully illustrated by Christopher Wormell (published in 1999). And Marina Warner edited Wonder Tales was published by FSG in 1994. So the idea is definitely in circulation.
Carolyn
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: Illustrated Nabokov? Maybe...
Dear Phil Howerton,
You have raised a subject very dear to my heart. I confess that I hadn't thought of Nabokov as being a good subject for illustration, but Pnin and other pre-Lolita works lend themselves very nicely. I can even "see" Pale Fire: bird-and-pane, an escutcheon, a chateau in the Midi, etc.
I have been working with an excellent artist named Mary Kuper for several years and we have produced (but not published yet) the first two in our series of "Illustrated Fairy Tales for Adults."
The first collaboration was my translation of the original 1740 version of La Belle et la Bete (ostensibly by Madame Suzanne Gabrielle de Villeneuve, but my research shows probably in collaboration with the rakish Crebillon fils) and the second is a story about a child lost in Czechoslovakia during the second world war, Seven by Katherine Winter. Other works we are thinking about include Isaak Dinesen's "The Monkey" and Flaubert's St Julien (which even Flaubert wished to have printed with an illustration of a particular stained glass window).
I don't yet know how to post a scan to the List, but if you would like to see some examples of Mary's work, please check out these two sites:
Mary's etchings
http://www.numasters.com/artists/gallery/view_artworks.asp?sup_id=283&sid=inactive
an oil painting
http://www.artistsinresidence.co.uk/service.htm
There are other examples of course. A few that come to mind: Mervyn Peake illustrated his own Gormenghast trilogy; Voltaire's Candide in Rockwell Kent's beautiful edition was recently re-published (and is available for a ridiculously low price at a discount house on the internet); there are several books illustrated by Barry Moser's wood engravings, including The Bible and of course many fine press books. A novel by Sena Jeter Naslund Ahab's Wife is beautifully illustrated by Christopher Wormell (published in 1999). And Marina Warner edited Wonder Tales was published by FSG in 1994. So the idea is definitely in circulation.
Carolyn