Many years ago I read Mary McCarthy's review of PALE FIRE which had appeared in NEW REPUBLIC on June 4th 1962. Years later when I came across a Penguin PALE FIRE with her review as an introduction to the novel it struck me as having been reworked.

In order to answer the question whether McCarthy had identified the source of VN's title in her original review, and knowing that I, at that time, had xeroxed her review, searched two attics, and finally found it as reprinted in Norman Page, NABOKOV: THE CRITICAL HERITAGE (Routledge & Kegan Paul 1982),pp. 124-136, where she admits:

 

"I have not been able to find, in Shakespeare or anywhere else, the source of 'pale fire.' In the commentary there is an account of the poet burning his rejected drafts in 'the pale fire of the incinerator.' " p. 136

 

 

A. Bouazza.

Aha! So in between 4 June 1962 and October 1962, somebody (Nobody?) told her. And this seems to confirm that she did write the rest of it, or anyway some of the rest of it.

 

Anthony Stadlen 

 

Anthony Stadlen