EDITOR's NOTE.  Dmitri Nabokov's  remarks at the end of the posting are followed by  a Russian translation. Mozhno chitat' zamechaniia DNa v kontse pis'ma v russkom perevode.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Dmitri Nabokov
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 11:36:51 -0800
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
To: NABOKV-L

NABOKV-L subscribers  Rita Meklin and Stan Milkowsky informed  me yesterday that  a book review in the weekly literary supplement  Ex Libris  of the Russian newspaper  Nezavisimaya gazeta (November 29, 2001 ) had, in passing, referred to the death last summer of Dmitri Nabokov.

The review article is titled:. 

"100% NABOKOFF:
Классическая биография Набокова положила конец набоковскому мифу"
Михаил Шульман (The Classic Biography of Nabokov puts an end to the Nabokov Myth")

Брайн Бойд. Владимир Набоков. Русские годы: Биография. Пер. с англ. Г.Лапиной. - М.: Издательство "Независимая Газета"; СПб.: Симпозиум, 2001, 695 с.  (VN. The Russian Years)

(Interested readers   will find the full Russian text of Shul'man's review at:  
http://exlibris.ng.ru/bios/2001-11-29/6_nabokoff.html)


In his highly favorable  review of the Russian translation of Brian Boyd's Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years,  literary critic Mikhail Shul'man, author of the idiosyncratic 1998 Nabokov , pisatel', rejoices that Russian readers at last have access to Boyd's ten-year-old work and will no longer have to depend on domestic products that provide an underinformed and badly distorted view of Nabokov. The reviewer's pleasure is alloyed only by the fact that Dmitri Nabokov "who died last summer" did not live long enough to see the long-delayed publication of the book. The relevant Russian text reads:

 "Oчень жаль, что эта дата так затянулась. Жаль, что книги не увидел скончавшийся летом Дмитрий Набоков"

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INFORMED of his demise, Dmitri Nabokov
 
"has asked NABOKV-L to inform all parties that he would like to quote the famous American author, Mark Twain, after he saw the report of his death by reading his obituary in the 'NEW JOURNAL'.  DN reacted thus: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
 
DN also asked NABOKV-L to report "that he  is very much alive and is busy writing his own biography.  DN can not personally answer as he is hurrying to get this final item (reports of his death) in the book.  DN would, he admits, like to know the circumstances of his death."
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Russian Translation:

Kogda ego opovestili o ego konchine, Dmitri Nabokov poprosil Nabokv-L
soobshchit' vsem zainteresovannym litsam, chto on khotel by protsetirovat'
izvestnogo amerikanskogo pisatel', Marka Tvena, kogda tot uvidel
zametku o svoei smerti sregi nekrologov v "New Journal." Tak chto
reaktsiia DN: "Soobshcheniia o moei smerti znachitel'no preuvelicheny."

DN poprosil Nabokv-L opublikovat' "chto on ochen' dazhe zhiv i v
nastoiashchii moment zaniat rabotoi nad svoei biografiei. DN ne mozhet
otvetit' sam, poskol'ku on speshit pomestit' v nee etu posledniuiu detal'
(t.e. soobshcheniie o ego konchine). DN priznaetsia, chto emu bylo by
ochen' interesno uznat' obstoiatel'stva ego smerti."

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Translation by Galya Diment, Professor & Acting Chair
Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Washington, Box 353580
Seattle, WA 98195-3580