Subject
Re: Nabokov's Butterflies cover story in ATLANTIC MONTHLY
Date
Body
Subscribers have just begun to receive the April 2000 issue of Atlantic
Monthly with the "Nabokov's Butterflies" cover feature. Since I got a hot
New York copy today, let me try to abstract what's in it.
Cover title--
Nabokov's Butterflies
A treasury of previously unpublished writings on the passion of a lifetime
by Vladimir Nabokov
[cover color drawing is by Nabokov from a first edition]
p. 51-58 Introduction by Brian Boyd entitled "Nabokov's Butterflies"
has six illustrations [including Nabokov butterfly drawings, Nabokov at MCZ,
Harvard, & Nabokov collecting], plus a divider page/"frontis" [Lysandra
cormion] before the next section (see below). There is also one "text box"
[p. 52] entitled "Metamorphosis" including two short pieces from the
Enchanter.
p. 59-75
"Father's Butterflies" by Vladimir Nabokov (translation of "DAR II"
[previously unpublished material from The Gift] by Dmitri Nabokov).
In this section the text runs at about 2/3 of page size with each page's
margin running with a partial column offset left or right full of
quotations, letters, snipits, illustrations and other miscellaneous
Nabokoviana [including seven butterfly drawings from first editions and
other sources]. There are also two full illustration pages including (1)
Nabokov's "scale-mapping" drawings from MCZ, Harvard and (2) a similar
layout of comparative drawings of wing patterns in various lycaenid
butterflies also done while at MCZ. The majority of all illustrations and
illustration pages are in color; there in an intervening page (p. 73) which
contains four interviews.
This is a cornucopia to say the least.
I pass this along since the issue has not hit the newstands but will soon.
Kurt Johnson
Monthly with the "Nabokov's Butterflies" cover feature. Since I got a hot
New York copy today, let me try to abstract what's in it.
Cover title--
Nabokov's Butterflies
A treasury of previously unpublished writings on the passion of a lifetime
by Vladimir Nabokov
[cover color drawing is by Nabokov from a first edition]
p. 51-58 Introduction by Brian Boyd entitled "Nabokov's Butterflies"
has six illustrations [including Nabokov butterfly drawings, Nabokov at MCZ,
Harvard, & Nabokov collecting], plus a divider page/"frontis" [Lysandra
cormion] before the next section (see below). There is also one "text box"
[p. 52] entitled "Metamorphosis" including two short pieces from the
Enchanter.
p. 59-75
"Father's Butterflies" by Vladimir Nabokov (translation of "DAR II"
[previously unpublished material from The Gift] by Dmitri Nabokov).
In this section the text runs at about 2/3 of page size with each page's
margin running with a partial column offset left or right full of
quotations, letters, snipits, illustrations and other miscellaneous
Nabokoviana [including seven butterfly drawings from first editions and
other sources]. There are also two full illustration pages including (1)
Nabokov's "scale-mapping" drawings from MCZ, Harvard and (2) a similar
layout of comparative drawings of wing patterns in various lycaenid
butterflies also done while at MCZ. The majority of all illustrations and
illustration pages are in color; there in an intervening page (p. 73) which
contains four interviews.
This is a cornucopia to say the least.
I pass this along since the issue has not hit the newstands but will soon.
Kurt Johnson