In an EDNote last week I referred vaguely to an interview in which Nabokov demonstrated an openness to patterns and other artistic elements that he (or for that matter any artist) did not consciously plan and build into a work. It turns out not to have been an interview, but a letter to Carl Proffer about his Keys to Lolita. Here is the text:

“Many of the delightful combinations and clues, though quite acceptable, never entered my head or are the result of an author’s intuition and inspiration, not calculation and craft. Otherwise why bother at all—in your case as well as mine.” (Sept. 26, 1966; Selected Letters, 391. An editorial DN footnote adds: "Last sentence added in holograph.")

Stephen Blackwell

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