Subject
Grunwald on Nabokov (fwd)
Date
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From: "Julian W. Connolly" <jwc4w@virginia.edu>
Henry Grunwald (former editor in chief of TIME Inc.) has a brief
appreciation of VN in today's _Wall Street Journal_ (Thursday, Mar. 20, p.
A14).
The article begins with Grunwald recalling that he recently told a talk
show host that the "most unforgettable character" he ever met was Vladimir
Nabokov, and Grunwald goes on to discuss his reasons for his comment. "I
could have mentioned dozens of names with wider box-office appeal. How did
Nabokov's tall, patrician, rather forbidding figure shoulder aside Marilyn
Monroe and Golda Meir, Richard Nixon and Mikhail Gorbachev? What quirk of
my subconscious had pushed him forward?" He answers himself: "What
fascinated me about Nabokov was the way in which he combined his deep
Russian roots with his loyalty and devotion to America. He represented
multiculturalism in the best, most beneficial sense, a sense very different
from the narrow, divisive, tribal ideology that nowadays carries the
multicultural label." The rest of the article consists of some personal
reminiscences and further discussion of Nabokov's sense of being an
American.
Best regards,
Julian
k
Henry Grunwald (former editor in chief of TIME Inc.) has a brief
appreciation of VN in today's _Wall Street Journal_ (Thursday, Mar. 20, p.
A14).
The article begins with Grunwald recalling that he recently told a talk
show host that the "most unforgettable character" he ever met was Vladimir
Nabokov, and Grunwald goes on to discuss his reasons for his comment. "I
could have mentioned dozens of names with wider box-office appeal. How did
Nabokov's tall, patrician, rather forbidding figure shoulder aside Marilyn
Monroe and Golda Meir, Richard Nixon and Mikhail Gorbachev? What quirk of
my subconscious had pushed him forward?" He answers himself: "What
fascinated me about Nabokov was the way in which he combined his deep
Russian roots with his loyalty and devotion to America. He represented
multiculturalism in the best, most beneficial sense, a sense very different
from the narrow, divisive, tribal ideology that nowadays carries the
multicultural label." The rest of the article consists of some personal
reminiscences and further discussion of Nabokov's sense of being an
American.
Best regards,
Julian
k