Dear Carolyn Kunin,

 

No, our OEDs are alike, but I should have made it clearer that the definition I cited extends, of course, to presses made of materials other than glass as well.  That much said, I think you’ll agree that, the Net notwithstanding and in keeping with OED and English usage (especially of some years ago), “glass-press” (hyphenated) suggests a “device to apply pressure to glass” (vol. IV, p. 204), while “glass press” (adjective + noun) denotes the cupboard (vol. VIII), p 1314) made, at least in part, of glass.

 

Father told me that “SLAUGHTER IN THE SUN” is a play on LAUGHTER IN THE DARK, but he would probably have been amused by the double allusion (DUEL IN THE SUN, which I saw in New York as a child, was long a favorite of mine).

 

You might enjoy this detail. In a letter of May 9, 1950, during an exchange about what Father might teach at Cornell, Edmund Wilson wrote:

 

            Stevenson is second-rate.

 

On May 15 Nabokov replied:

 

You approach Stevenson from the wrong side. Of course TREASURE ISLAND is poor stuff. The one masterpiece he wrote is the first-rate and permanent JEKYLL AND HYDE.

 

 

With best regards,

 

DN                                                                                                                                                          &n bsp;                                                                                                                                                                                  & nbsp;