Subject
VN in the 2000 On Writers & Writing Calendar
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Date
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I have that particular calendar on my desk this year. Nabokov himself,
actually, is not featured in it as an "entry" -- some other Russian
writers are: Chekhov, Tolstoy. More Russians are noted through the dates
of their birthdays -- Mandelstam (Jan. 15), Gogol (March 20), Gorky (March
28), and, yes, Nabokov -- here April 22, which he shares with Ellen
Glasgow, b. 1873 and Madame de Stael, b. 1766. But there is also another,
and only a half accurate, reference to him in the calendar's essay on
Austen (she is "the girl of the month" for July even though she was born
in December): "Jane Austen was always modest about her achievements.
Vladimir Nabokov, who was prejudiced against all women writers, disliked
her work. Read her again, advised Edmund Wilson. 'She is, in my opinion,'
Wilson said, 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers.' Her readers
would agree..." The entry never goes back to VN -- so the calendar users
will never find out, unless they know it already, that once VN heeded
Wilson's advice and re-read Austen, he did change his opinion of her work
quite substantially. Oh, well.
Galya Diment
actually, is not featured in it as an "entry" -- some other Russian
writers are: Chekhov, Tolstoy. More Russians are noted through the dates
of their birthdays -- Mandelstam (Jan. 15), Gogol (March 20), Gorky (March
28), and, yes, Nabokov -- here April 22, which he shares with Ellen
Glasgow, b. 1873 and Madame de Stael, b. 1766. But there is also another,
and only a half accurate, reference to him in the calendar's essay on
Austen (she is "the girl of the month" for July even though she was born
in December): "Jane Austen was always modest about her achievements.
Vladimir Nabokov, who was prejudiced against all women writers, disliked
her work. Read her again, advised Edmund Wilson. 'She is, in my opinion,'
Wilson said, 'one of the half dozen greatest English writers.' Her readers
would agree..." The entry never goes back to VN -- so the calendar users
will never find out, unless they know it already, that once VN heeded
Wilson's advice and re-read Austen, he did change his opinion of her work
quite substantially. Oh, well.
Galya Diment