Subject
Salon article on VN write-alike contest
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Suellen Stringer-Hye <Stringers@LIBRARY.Vanderbilt.edu> is
the compiler of the VNCollations that appear on NABOKV-L and ZEMBLA (where
her recent interview with VERA author Stacy Schiff recently appeared. She
is, inter alia, a specialist on VN & popular culture.
-----------------------
Published in SALON
********************************************************
Nabokov write-alike contest may hide
genuine article
Has Nabokov's son sneaked snippets
from his father's unpublished novel
into an obscure journal?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
BY CRAIG OFFMAN
June 28, 1999 | It seems that the
tight-knit, secretive community of
Nabokov scholars has yet another
controversy brewing. The summer
edition of The Nabokovian, a
quarterly academic journal for
those who study the author of
"Lolita," features "The Nabokov
Prose-Alike Centennial Contest,"
which consists of five passages.
Readers are invited to pick out the
imitations from the original
writings of the Russian master.
However, this exercise may be
trickier than it seems.
Jeff Edmunds, a cataloging
specialist at Penn State University
and an insider in the Nabokovian
scene, alleges that the genuine
Nabokov extracts used in the
contest have been taken from the
author's unpublished, unfinished
novel, "The Original of Laura."
Edmunds was one of the select few
present when Dmitri Nabokov, the
author's son and executor, read
aloud portions of the novel in
Ithaca, N.Y., last fall.
Yet another Nabokov insider who was
present at the same reading
pooh-poohs Edmunds' observation.
"It's more likely to be a baker's
dozen -- rejected variants from
different books," the scholar says.
While Dmitri certainly gave the
journal permission to publish the
excerpts, he recently told Salon
Books that he hadn't decided what
to do with the unpublished novel.
As it stands, the Nabokov family
only allows a very few scholars to
look at "Laura."
Salon Books attempted to contact
the Nabokovian's editor, Stephen
Parker, for comment, but he was in
France and could not be reached.
salon.com | June 28, 1999
Suellen Stringer-Hye
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Vanderbilt University
stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu
the compiler of the VNCollations that appear on NABOKV-L and ZEMBLA (where
her recent interview with VERA author Stacy Schiff recently appeared. She
is, inter alia, a specialist on VN & popular culture.
-----------------------
Published in SALON
********************************************************
Nabokov write-alike contest may hide
genuine article
Has Nabokov's son sneaked snippets
from his father's unpublished novel
into an obscure journal?
- - - - - - - - - - - -
BY CRAIG OFFMAN
June 28, 1999 | It seems that the
tight-knit, secretive community of
Nabokov scholars has yet another
controversy brewing. The summer
edition of The Nabokovian, a
quarterly academic journal for
those who study the author of
"Lolita," features "The Nabokov
Prose-Alike Centennial Contest,"
which consists of five passages.
Readers are invited to pick out the
imitations from the original
writings of the Russian master.
However, this exercise may be
trickier than it seems.
Jeff Edmunds, a cataloging
specialist at Penn State University
and an insider in the Nabokovian
scene, alleges that the genuine
Nabokov extracts used in the
contest have been taken from the
author's unpublished, unfinished
novel, "The Original of Laura."
Edmunds was one of the select few
present when Dmitri Nabokov, the
author's son and executor, read
aloud portions of the novel in
Ithaca, N.Y., last fall.
Yet another Nabokov insider who was
present at the same reading
pooh-poohs Edmunds' observation.
"It's more likely to be a baker's
dozen -- rejected variants from
different books," the scholar says.
While Dmitri certainly gave the
journal permission to publish the
excerpts, he recently told Salon
Books that he hadn't decided what
to do with the unpublished novel.
As it stands, the Nabokov family
only allows a very few scholars to
look at "Laura."
Salon Books attempted to contact
the Nabokovian's editor, Stephen
Parker, for comment, but he was in
France and could not be reached.
salon.com | June 28, 1999
Suellen Stringer-Hye
Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Vanderbilt University
stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu