Subject
STRONG OPINIONS Index Author & 'Dead Man's Gulch' (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brian Dale Walter <bdwalter@artsci.wustl.edu>
Two questions for Nabokovians:
1. Does anyone have a (reasonably) current mailing address for John
DeMoss, author of an (invaluable) index to STRONG OPINIONS? I tried the
address listed in a 1981 issue of the VN Research Newsletter, but
unsurprisingly, it no longer works.
2. According to Donald Hall's article about James Laughlin in the August
23, 1981 issue of the NY Times Book Review (entitled "Ezra Pound Said to
Be a Publisher"), Laughlin renamed Bear Gulch (near his Altamira lodge in
Utah) "Dead Man's Gulch" in 'honor' of Nabokov, who, according to the
anecdote, passed up a dying man in his single-minded pursuit of a
butterfly (the body was found the next day, after Nabokov -- again,
according to Hall's description -- quite casually mentioned hearing groans
to Laughlin). The incident is not mentioned in Boyd's biography (even to
discredit it), which can't help but make one suspicious, considering how
perfectly the anecdote fits the worst elements of Nabokov's image and how
troubled his relations with Laughlin were. Does anyone know Hall's source
for this anecdote? Can anyone offer evidence to verify or refute it?
Thanks.
Brian Walter
6800 Vernon
St. Louis, MO 63130-2524
(314) 863-4041
bdwalter@artsci.wustl.edu
From: Brian Dale Walter <bdwalter@artsci.wustl.edu>
Two questions for Nabokovians:
1. Does anyone have a (reasonably) current mailing address for John
DeMoss, author of an (invaluable) index to STRONG OPINIONS? I tried the
address listed in a 1981 issue of the VN Research Newsletter, but
unsurprisingly, it no longer works.
2. According to Donald Hall's article about James Laughlin in the August
23, 1981 issue of the NY Times Book Review (entitled "Ezra Pound Said to
Be a Publisher"), Laughlin renamed Bear Gulch (near his Altamira lodge in
Utah) "Dead Man's Gulch" in 'honor' of Nabokov, who, according to the
anecdote, passed up a dying man in his single-minded pursuit of a
butterfly (the body was found the next day, after Nabokov -- again,
according to Hall's description -- quite casually mentioned hearing groans
to Laughlin). The incident is not mentioned in Boyd's biography (even to
discredit it), which can't help but make one suspicious, considering how
perfectly the anecdote fits the worst elements of Nabokov's image and how
troubled his relations with Laughlin were. Does anyone know Hall's source
for this anecdote? Can anyone offer evidence to verify or refute it?
Thanks.
Brian Walter
6800 Vernon
St. Louis, MO 63130-2524
(314) 863-4041
bdwalter@artsci.wustl.edu