Choice of Literary Period: Individual Authors Who Publish under Pseudonyms or Who Write in More Than One Language
The February 2010 New and Changed Entries (in PDF and Word formats) added two new paragraphs to the “Literary periods” section of the main Manual entry for Table 3A Subdivisions for Works by or about Individual Authors.
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An example of a work affected by this instruction is King, Queen, Knave: A Novel by Vladimir Nabokov “translated by Dmitri Nabokov in collaboration with the author.” The novel was originally published in Russian in 1928. (For an overview of the publishing history of Nabokov, see WorldCat Identities for Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich 1899–1977.) Because Nabokov began to flourish as a literary author in Russian during 1917–1945, the correct class number for King, Queen, Knave: A Novel is 891.7342 Russian fiction—1917–1945 (built with 891.7 Russian literature plus T3A—3 Fiction, plus 42 1917–1945 from the literary period table at 891.701-891.78 Subdivisions of Russian literature, following instructions at 891.701-891.78, at the start of Table 3A Subdivisions for Works by or about Individual Authors, and at T3A—31–T3A—39 Fiction of specific periods).
Vladimir Nabokov moved to the United States in 1940 and published his first novel in English in 1941, but he began to flourish as an author of American literature in English during the period 1945–1999. His literary period notation as an author of American literature in English is 54, from the literary period table at 810.1–818 Subdivisions of American literature. An example of a work affected by the instruction is the novel Lolita. The novel was first published in English in 1955. It is classed in 813.54 American fiction—1945–1999.
The Dewey classifiers at the Library of Congress have long followed the policy described in the paragraph about choice of literary period for individual authors who write in more than one language.