Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011951, Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:11:35 -0700

Subject
Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokovian blunders
Date
Body
Assuming the request under discussion was a fabrication, I'm not sure it's quite
as outrageous as Jo Morgan and company assert it would have been in '50s
America. Vidal's "The City and the Pillar" had been published in '48; "Other
Voices, Other Rooms" around the same time; in "smarter" literary circles there
was a small vogue for a sort of gay fiction, just as there was a vogue for the
goofy faux Faulkner so hilariously nailed by VN with "I guess God acts
crazy..." In fact, the whole passage under scrutiny can be read as a droll tour
of the acceptable face of "scandalous" literary fiction of the time.

In any case, one is inclined to conclude that Ms. Morgan's knowledge of American
publishing history...lacks.

GK
-----Original Message-----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 19:58:19
To:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Nabokovian blunders

Dear Anthony

Please look again, I did respond to your earlier query re Nabokov's
statement over the boy/girl swop. I agree with you that it would have been
an incredibly strange request for any US publisher to have made back in the
1950s. As it was, Lolita barely found a publisher with Nabokov's twofold
nymphet playing the starring role.

Jo Morgan
Sydney

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