Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000544, Sat, 1 Apr 1995 11:05:18 -0800

Subject
Publications of Nabokov's letters (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE: My thanks to Andrey Ustinov for supplying the information
below. DBJ
______________________
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 22:33:05 +0500
From: Andrey Borisovich Ustinov <austinov@leland.stanford.edu>

Here is the bibliographic
information on two latest publications of Nabokov's correspondence:

I.
NASHE NASLEDIE / OUR HERITAGE. No. 31 (1994), p. 93-96:

"Neizvestnye pis'ma Nabokova". Vstupitel'naia stat'ia, publikatsiia i
kommentarii Mariny Edel'man.
Includes 6 letters of Nabokov and Vera Evseevna to Sergei Makovskii
(1877-1962) from Makovskii's personal fond in RGALI (F. 2512, op. 1,
ed.khr. 350) regarding publication of Nabokov's "Stikhotvoreniia.
1929-1951" (Parizh, 1952) in the publishing house "Rifma," which was
organized by Makovskii in 1949-1950 on his and Irina Iassen (Rakhil'
Chekver)'s money. Two of Nabokov's letters are translated from French by M.
Edel'man and N. Gal' and published only in translation. In two last letters
dating back to 1962 Nabokov asked (or even insisted) Makovsky to return his
manuscripts, including "Angel'skie chiny". There is also an excerpt from
Pletnev's letter to Makovskii about Nabokov, quoted in commentary to letter
5.

II.
NOVOE LITERATURNOE OBOZRENIE. No. 5 (1993) [out in December 1993-January
1994], p. 122-137:

G.M. Bongard-Levin. "Vladimir Nabokov i Akademik M.I. Rostovtsev. (Novye
materialy iz arkhivov SShA)".

A very informative, carefully researched and well written article, which
includes the complete texts of the following letters:
- VN to Mikhail Karpovich from Berlin from 24 May 1936 (Bakhmeteff Archive.
MsColl Karpovich)
- VN to Mikhail Rostovtzeff from Berlin from 9 December 1936 (Bakhmeteff
Archive. MsColl Vernadsky)
- VN to George Vernadsky from Berlin from 7 January 1937 (Bakhmeteff
Archive. MsColl Vernadsky)
- VN to George Vernadsky from Berlin from 18 February 1938 (Bakhmeteff
Archive. MsColl Vernadsky)
- M.E. Vil'chur to George Vernadsky from 5 October 1938 (Bakhmeteff
Archive. MsColl Vernadsky) about a sponsorship of VN by "Fond pomoshchi
rossiskim pisateliam i uchenym"
- VN to George Vernadsky from summer 1938 (Bakhmeteff Archive. MsColl Vernadsky)
- VN to Rostovtzeff from paris from 23 february 1939 (Duke University.
"Biblioteka osobykh kollektsii" [Special Collections? -- I do not know its
title in English])
- Rostovtzeff's recommendation letter for VN from 14 March 1939 (original
in LC, copy in Duke)
- VN to Rostovtzeff from Paris from 30 March 1939 (Duke University)
- VN to Karpovich from Paris from 20 April 1940 (Bakhmeteff)
- VN to Karpovich from Paris from 29 May 1940 (Bakhmeteff)
- VN to Rostovtzeff from New York from 10-12 May 1940 (Duke University)
- VN to Vernadsky from May 1940 (Bakhmeteff)
- VN to Rostovtzeff from September 1940 (Duke University)
- VN to Vernadsky from New York 30 September 1940 (Bakhmeteff)
- VN to Rostovtzeff from Wellesley from 16 December 1941 (Duke University)

as well as excerpts from other VN's letters to Karpovich, Vernadsky, A.A.
Goldenveizer (and a copy of his letter to VN), Karpovich to Vernadsky, M.A.
Aldanov to Goldenveizer (about a possibility for VN to teach at Stanford),
M.V. Dobuzhinskii to VN, retold VN to Dobuzhinskii, Dobuzhinskii to A.L.
Tolstaia.

Some of the letters are paraphrased like VN's letter to Dobuzhinskii, but
mostly they are quoted or published in full -- which is in my opinion the
greatest part of this article/publication. It also raises an extremely
important issue of VN's contacts with distinctive Russian scholars in the
US.

This publication is mentioned in a recent review of "NLO" (aka. "Novoe
Literaturnoe Obozrenie") by Ivan Konovalov [Evgenii Gollerbakh] in "Zvezda"
(No. 12, 1994).

Andrey Ustinov