Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000012, Tue, 6 Apr 1993 19:30:14 -0700

Subject
Gilles Barbedette archives in Paris (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Text of forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1993 11:57 EST
From: John Lavagnino <LAV@BRANDEIS.bitnet>
To: nabokv-l@ucsbvm.bitnet
Subject: Gilles Barbedette archives in Paris

The Institut Memoires de l'Edition Contemporaine (25, rue de Lille,
Paris) has acquired the archives of the late Gilles Barbedette, who was
involved in editing and translating French versions of Nabokov's works
for many years. Here is an extract from the IMEC's newsletter in which
they describe this collection (apologies for the accent-free
transcription):

Riche de la correspondance entretenue par Gilles Barbedette avec la
famille de l'ecrivain et de ses travaux preparatoires pour l'edition
dans la Pleiade (Gallimard) de l'oeuvre de Nabokov, ce fonds mettra
a la disposition des chercheurs un grand nombre d'ouvrages critiques
et les elements d'une histoire de l'edition de Nabokov en France,
inauguree avec fracas par la publication de Lolita--interdite aux
Etats-Unis--chez Olympia Press a Paris par Maurice Girodias. (``Un
fonds d'etudes Vladimir Nabokov,'' La lettre de l'IMEC, number 1,
1992, 4.)

(They seem to be suggesting here that Lolita was banned in the USA but
not France, when the opposite was true. A bit worrisome, since
publishing history is precisely what the IMEC is supposed to be devoted
to...)

John Lavagnino, Department of English, Brandeis University