Excerpts from Eric Naiman's excellent review (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? =/c/a/2009/12/06/RVPH1AQLOR.DTL#ixzz0Z2Q5u0MN) : ...Nabokov's 1957 poem "The Ballad of Longwood Glen," in which Art Longwood, "a local florist," climbs up into a tree and disappears[...] the compensation for Art's disappearance is supposed to be the poem they are in..."

JM (a Post-script): When I first read the lines above, with no snips interrupting their logical flow, a curious item escaped me to puzzle me later, while re-reading the excerpt ("the compensation for Art's disappearance is supposed to be the poem they are in"). Uusually the discussions ly emphasize an author's merging with his art, or disappearing into the novel like "Vaniada" died in "Ada", etc. In the case of VN's 1957 poem and the florist named Art Longwood (equally suggestive, by proximity, of the Latin words "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis"?), Art and art apparently gave way to a poem and this in turn will depend on a reader to live on. Would that effect have been intentional on VN's part? On Naiman's?

All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.

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