Sandy Klein sent news on " Novel
with Cocaine": " For a book that influenced the development of William S.
Burroughs’ “Junky,” is a favorite of John Updike and was once
speculated to be the work of Vladimir Nabokov writing under the pen name of M.
Ageyev, “Novel With Cocaine” (or “The Cocaine Romance”) is a
surprisingly obscure work - [...] one of the best books in my recent
memory."
JM: When Nabokov wanted to publish his
short-story "A Matter of Chance" it was refused at first because, so
it was argued, it explicitly mentions cocaine. I'm not familiar
enough with its editorial developments, but it seems strange if we
remember De Quincey's "Confessions of an
English Opium-Eater" (1822), or French authors, such as Baudelaire,
Rimbaud etc. Does anyone know more about this story or VN's
familiarity with the theme?