Subject
VN the American (MR to CHW)
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Charles asks: "Since VN continued to pay US taxes, why didn't
he stay in America?"
MR: The whole answer to this is, of course, unknowable, but as
I understand the chronology of events, much of the decision to
stay in Switzerland revolved around Dmitri. In Boyd's LoA
chronology, he says that VN returned to Europe in 1960 to be
near Dmitri. He intended at that time to return to America. But
Dmitri soon had his operatic debut--along with some guy named
Pavarotti--and VN wanted to be able to attend his performances
in Italy. Soon after, in 1962, Dmitri fell seriously ill and
had to be hospitalized several times over the next two years.
Any parent would want to be close by. Then, after a brief trip
to Ithaca to pick up some things he'd left there, Vera had to
be hospitalized for appendicitis. So it would seem that VN
stayed in Europe longer than first planned, at least in part,
because of family considerations. After that, he may have
found himself too comfortable, and getting too old, to pick up
and move across the ocean again.
But I'm just surmising.
Matt Roth
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he stay in America?"
MR: The whole answer to this is, of course, unknowable, but as
I understand the chronology of events, much of the decision to
stay in Switzerland revolved around Dmitri. In Boyd's LoA
chronology, he says that VN returned to Europe in 1960 to be
near Dmitri. He intended at that time to return to America. But
Dmitri soon had his operatic debut--along with some guy named
Pavarotti--and VN wanted to be able to attend his performances
in Italy. Soon after, in 1962, Dmitri fell seriously ill and
had to be hospitalized several times over the next two years.
Any parent would want to be close by. Then, after a brief trip
to Ithaca to pick up some things he'd left there, Vera had to
be hospitalized for appendicitis. So it would seem that VN
stayed in Europe longer than first planned, at least in part,
because of family considerations. After that, he may have
found himself too comfortable, and getting too old, to pick up
and move across the ocean again.
But I'm just surmising.
Matt Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm