RSGwynn [to Gary and Stan] :”Of course it could be Lenin's gal garb if we impute cross-dressing (why not?) to Kinbote.If you're looking for poets as models for CK, try Pound…Hetero, but kinky./ In my essay in the forthcoming PF book from Gingko, I do mention Lowell as a possible influence on VN's conception of JS's poem, mainly because Lowell's most recent book at the time of PF's action was The Mills of the Kavanaughs, much of which is in couplets…If VN was going to set his sights on a contemporary poet as one worthy of competing with, RL would have been at the top of the heap…

 

JM:  You are indicating this new “Pale Fire Solus,” ie  where there’s no Kinbote recreating Shade. Do you consider, then, that this independent production, by Nabokov now, would explicitly shape itself following any contemporary poet, or its conception result from a poetic competition, instead of …what would be the term…traditional poetry?