I had intended to get this finished in time for VN's birthday, but obviously I missed that deadline. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I find it interesting to discover the sources that inspired particular details in VN's fiction. Clearly, one of these sources was VN's Bible-like dictionary, Webster's 2nd. Because I am most familiar with the lexicon employed in Pale Fire, I decided to see how many words (or closely related words) from that novel appeared as guide words and/or illustrations in Webster's 2nd. The list below (unfortunately without cross-referenced pages) gives us a small window into VN's artistic process.  Here 'tis:

 

Guide Words

Acanthus leaf

Ampelis (syn. of Bombycilla)

Arcadia

Bote, bot

Bracken

Degree

Eberthella

Flowret

Gooseboy

Gutnish

Impress

Mandible

Mason

Mongrel

Orbicular

Pan

Parchment

Phalangeal

Prisoner of Zenda

Solecism

Vanessa

Versipel

 

Small Illustrations

Cedar Waxwing

Cicada

Compass Rose

Coronation Chair (see PF pg. 224, "shaped almost exactly as the coronation chair of a Scottish king")

Crow

Eton Student (with "Eton Collar")

Faun of Praxiteles

Glowworm

Hazel (leaf and ament)

Holds (wrestling): Half-Nelson, Hammerlock, Headlock, Stranglehold (recall Kinbote's Zemblan wrestling holds)

Horseshoes

Indra

Involute (leaf)

Jackboot

Larch

Laurel

Lupine

Mammoth

Prehistoric Man: Java, Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon (recall the model in the Exton museum, whom John Shade resembles)

Mangle

Martin

Medusa

Mercury

Michaelmastide

Mockingbird

Pan

Parachute

Red Admirable

Ruffed Grouse

Stick Insect

Virginia Creeper

Bohemian Waxwing

Wood Duck

Yew (notes root in Old Slavic, iva willow; recall that Kinbote says that the French word for the yew, if, is the Zemblan word for willow)

 

Illustrations from Full-Page Plates

"Aircraft": Henry Farman's Airplane, Santos Dumont Demoiselle

"Automobiles": Packard

"Common Birds of America": Cedar Waxwing, Baltimore Oriole, Bobolink, Robin

"Common Butterflies & Moths": Red Admirable, Monarch, Luna Moth

"Colors": chrysoprase green, salmon, emerald green

"Orchids": Disa Uniflora

"Gems": chrysoprase, topaz, ruby, emerald, jasper

"Trees": linden, red cedar juniper, hickory

 

If you would like to see where each of these words appears in the novel, just use this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0679723420/ref=sib_dp_pt/105-2896568-9183620#reader-link

 

 

Best,

Matt Roth