After nineteen years of serving as Editor of The Nabokovian's feature "Notes and Brief Commentaries,” Priscilla Meyer has decided to step down. On behalf of us all, I would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Priscilla for her tireless work on the journal these many, very many years. Priscilla oversaw The Nabokovian’s transition from print to the online version; her personal grace and editorial acumen are visible on every page and to every reader of the journal.
Though editing The Nabokovian’s “Notes and Brief Commentaries” would have been a significant enough contribution on its own to the field of Nabokov Studies, this work constitutes but a very small part of her vast contributions to the field. She is the author of more than fifty publications on Nabokov, she has made more than fifty public appearances as an expert on Nabokovian subjects, and has served twice as President of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society. Her innovative teaching and her scholarship have won national awards. The most recent volume of Nabokov Studies (Volume 16, 2019) pays homage to these significant achievements. The volume, co-edited by Rachel Trousdale and Zoran Kuzmanovich, includes several essays from a Wesleyan University conference honoring Priscilla on the occasion of her retirement. I invite you to read Rachel Trousdale’s “Remarks on Priscilla Meyer’s Retirement” and Zoran Kuzmanovich’s “A Tribute to Priscilla Meyer,” along with Galya Diment’s review of Priscilla’s second monograph on Nabokov, Nabokov and Indeterminacy: The Case of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight.
Priscilla will pass the editorial baton of the “Notes and Brief Commentarries” section of The Nabokovian to Eric Naiman, Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Professor and Bernie Williams Chair in the Department of Comparative Literature at Berkeley. Though Nabokovians know Eric as the author of the monograph Nabokov, Perversely (Cornell 2010) and a number of highly respected articles on Nabokov, he has also written extensively on Russian and Soviet history and culture in venues such as Representations, Comparative Literature, The Times Literary Supplement, Slavic and East European Journal, Nabokov Studies, and Signs. I take this opportunity to thank Eric for agreeing to serve as the next Editor of the Notes section of The Nabokovian and I look forward to sending out the next Call for Papers under his leadership.
As we thank together Priscilla for her decades of service to the field of Nabokov Studies and we welcome Eric’s assumption of Priscilla’s former role on The Nabokovian, I leave you here with the Table of Contents of the festschrift dedicated to Priscilla.
Nabokov Studies, Volume 16 (2019)
Table of Contents
Remarks on Priscilla Meyer's Retirement
On One of the Biographical Sources of Pale Fire
The Absence of Justice in Nabokov's Pale Fire
"My Scheme was a Marvel of Primitive Art": Durable Pigments in Lolita
Nabokov, Grief, and Repetition
The Tragic Game of Bend Sinister
Bunin's Tambourine: Echoes of the Old Master in His Disciple's Fourth Novel
Nabokov and Indeterminacy: The Case of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight by Priscilla Meyer (review)
That Other World: Nabokov and the Puzzle of Exile by Azar Nafisi (review)
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