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Maria Kalman Nabokov illustration
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A wonderful series of six illustrations (with text) by Maria
Kalman, titled "Sorry, the Rest is Unknown," includes a
watercolor of the young Nabokov perusing a butterfly book in
his childhood home. The text reads "Nabokov's family fled
Russia. How could the young Nabokov, sitting innocently and
elegantly in a red chair, leafing through a book on
butterflies, imagine such displacement? Such loss." The theme
of the series is uncertainty--of exile, of extinction, of
memory--and several of the illustrations have to do with
Russia, where Kalman's mother was born. Kalman is the author
of twelve children's books; she also illustrated the recent
reissue of Strunk and White's _Elements of Style_ and created
the well-known New Yorker cover "Newyorkistan." The
illustrations are part of the NY Times' blog section and may
be viewed at http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=8,
but only, I think, if you belong to TimesSelect, nytimes.com's newish
paid
subscription service (you can sign up for a free trial at the
Times site).
Mary Bellino
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
Kalman, titled "Sorry, the Rest is Unknown," includes a
watercolor of the young Nabokov perusing a butterfly book in
his childhood home. The text reads "Nabokov's family fled
Russia. How could the young Nabokov, sitting innocently and
elegantly in a red chair, leafing through a book on
butterflies, imagine such displacement? Such loss." The theme
of the series is uncertainty--of exile, of extinction, of
memory--and several of the illustrations have to do with
Russia, where Kalman's mother was born. Kalman is the author
of twelve children's books; she also illustrated the recent
reissue of Strunk and White's _Elements of Style_ and created
the well-known New Yorker cover "Newyorkistan." The
illustrations are part of the NY Times' blog section and may
be viewed at http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/?p=8,
but only, I think, if you belong to TimesSelect, nytimes.com's newish
paid
subscription service (you can sign up for a free trial at the
Times site).
Mary Bellino
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