Word: nabokov
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Foote began reading Nabokov earlier than any of his colleagues. He was in Paris as a TIME-LIFE correspondent in 1955, when Lolita was published in a two-volume edition as part of Maurice Girodias' Travelers Companion Series. From this, and earlier Nabokov writings, he came to admire the author's enormous talent as a novelist. Now, after working on the cover, he is equally impressed by Nabokov's remarkable discipline and courage during a life of exile...
...Cover: Oil painting from life by Gerard de Rose. Background items include the spires of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow; a portrait of Nabokov's mother at 34, painted by Leon Bakst in 1910; tiles from a Russian version of Scrabble; a brown wood nymph butterfly, and on the novelist's shoulder, a small blue Lycaena argiolus...
...cannot hope to understand an author if one cannot even pronounce his name," Vladimir Nabokov has observed. The point, originally made about Nikolai Gogol (pronounced Gaw-gol), applies to Nabokov himself. Over the years he has repeatedly complained about the damage inflicted on the Nabokov name in its passage through foreign ports of articulation. Nabokov, Nabokov, Nah-bo-kov, are frequent errors. Rare mutations, he reports, include Nahba-cocoa and Na-bob-kopf. The correct sound, says the man who made the name famous, is Nahboakoff. Slipping on the mask of a straight face for an instant, he continues: "Vladeemir...
This last is just the sort of phonetic parallel Nabokov relishes. Similarly, he is fond of insisting that, with minor adjustments for Julian and Gregorian dating systems, he shares an April 23 birth date with William Shakespeare. But then, he adds, "So does Shirley Temple...
This little charade is just a conversational pleasantry. Or is it? Who can ever be sure with Nabokov? Perhaps he has something more in mind. Devout Nabokov watchers might find clues in those references to Julius Caesar and Pope Gregory. They might see implications of the fall of Rome, the rise of Byzantium, and a consequent gap between East and West that makes comparisons impossible between Anglo-Saxon writers (Shakespeare) and Slavic writers (Nabokov...