Irena Ksiezopolska. Robert Roper, Mary
Efremov and A. Bouazza wondered about a misidentification that's
become unexplainably rather frequent in the media for the past months (I've
seen an online blog substitute an incorrect photo with the cousin Nicolas
for another photo, in a different pose, of the same Nicolas!).
AB summarizes
the issue: "Once again Nicolas Nabokov is mistaken for Vladimir Nabokov. To
me, the resemblance is very superficial and is further minimized by the
prominent difference between their noses."
In 1964 VN replied to an interviewer: I have a fair inkling of my literary afterlife. I have sensed
certain hints, I have felt the breeze of certain promises...With the Devil's
connivance, I open a newspaper of 2063 and in some article on the books page I
find: "Nobody reads Nabokov or Fulmerford today." Awful question: Who is this
unfortunate Fulmerford?
It hasn't
occurred to him (nor anyone else for that matter) that his literary fate
might prosper behind a wrong mask! There are so many Nabokovs, perhaps one
should practice to always mark the one we are quoting. Not N, not D, not E
but V.N.