Subject
Re: VN Biblio/Rostovtzeff (fwd)
Date
Body
>From Mary Bellino (iambe@javanet.com):
Mikhail Rostovtzeff (1870-1952), whose family lived on the same street
as the Nabokovs in St Petersburg, was a real sweetheart about helping
fellow emigres to find their way in the new world. Besides the "powerful
letter of recommendation" he wrote for VN when the latter was trying to
find a job that would enable him to leave Germany (VNRY pp. 430-31,
506), he spoke directly to W.C. DeVane, Dean of Yale, about a job for
VN; apparently Yale did offer him a position, but by then he was already
settled in Wellesley. He also assisted Elias Bickerman, who had been his
student in St Petersburg, in obtaining a position at the New School for
Social Research.
Rostovtseff also tried to find a job for Henri Gregoire, or rather a
paying job, since the "Ecole libre des hautes etudes" (which Gregoire
founded in New York) was not exactly a money-making proposition. The
Ecole Libre edition of the Song of Igor published in 1948 by Gregoire,
Roman Jakobson, and Marc Szeftel is in fact dedicated to Rostovtzeff.
This is not the project for which VN was supposed to provide the
translation, but an earlier French-language edition that VN admired,
which led to Jakobson, Szeftel & VN accepting an advance to produce an
English edition with notes. (For all of this see Galya Diment's
_Pniniad_ pp. 37-41 et passim.)
Rostovtzeff himself never forgot his debt to those who had helped him
after his emigration. He was so grateful to the University of Wisconsin,
which employed him for several years before he moved to Yale, that he
dedicated his monumental _History of the Ancient World_, long a standard
text, to the university and its students.
For further details, including some material on VN that I have not seen
elsewhere, the interested reader may consult Marinus A. Wes, _Michael
Rostovtzeff, Historian in Exile: Russian Roots in an American Context_
(HISTORIA Einzelschriften, Heft 65. Stuttgart:Steiner Verlag, 1990),
especially chapters 11 and 12.
Mary Bellino
Mikhail Rostovtzeff (1870-1952), whose family lived on the same street
as the Nabokovs in St Petersburg, was a real sweetheart about helping
fellow emigres to find their way in the new world. Besides the "powerful
letter of recommendation" he wrote for VN when the latter was trying to
find a job that would enable him to leave Germany (VNRY pp. 430-31,
506), he spoke directly to W.C. DeVane, Dean of Yale, about a job for
VN; apparently Yale did offer him a position, but by then he was already
settled in Wellesley. He also assisted Elias Bickerman, who had been his
student in St Petersburg, in obtaining a position at the New School for
Social Research.
Rostovtseff also tried to find a job for Henri Gregoire, or rather a
paying job, since the "Ecole libre des hautes etudes" (which Gregoire
founded in New York) was not exactly a money-making proposition. The
Ecole Libre edition of the Song of Igor published in 1948 by Gregoire,
Roman Jakobson, and Marc Szeftel is in fact dedicated to Rostovtzeff.
This is not the project for which VN was supposed to provide the
translation, but an earlier French-language edition that VN admired,
which led to Jakobson, Szeftel & VN accepting an advance to produce an
English edition with notes. (For all of this see Galya Diment's
_Pniniad_ pp. 37-41 et passim.)
Rostovtzeff himself never forgot his debt to those who had helped him
after his emigration. He was so grateful to the University of Wisconsin,
which employed him for several years before he moved to Yale, that he
dedicated his monumental _History of the Ancient World_, long a standard
text, to the university and its students.
For further details, including some material on VN that I have not seen
elsewhere, the interested reader may consult Marinus A. Wes, _Michael
Rostovtzeff, Historian in Exile: Russian Roots in an American Context_
(HISTORIA Einzelschriften, Heft 65. Stuttgart:Steiner Verlag, 1990),
especially chapters 11 and 12.
Mary Bellino