In her Imagining Nabokov, Nina Khrushchev complains (quite snidely, I felt) that VN saddled Véra with diverse uncreative chores such as cleaning blackboards, accounting, serving as on-call chauffeuse, and manually TYPING the texts from VN’s written cards.
The auction brochure lists two items as VN’s mechanical typewriters, leading me to ponder idly if, in fact, their keyboards were ever graced by the master’s personal touch? If so, I picture VN pecking away one key at a time, in contrast to Véra’s professional speed typing?

Meanwhile and regardless, I’m delighted for Dmitri that VN’s artifacts were so highly valued.

PS: in a recent Guardian selection of the 100 best-ever non-fiction works (list-mania strikes again), VN’s Speak Memory wins a place in the Biography sub-category. Not sure how this fits in with ongoing Nabokovian debates on the overlapping definitions of fiction and non-fiction.

Stan Kelly-Bootle

On 13/06/2011 15:09, "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:

Nabokov Bibliography <http://www.vnbiblio.com/>

All About Vladimir Nabokov in Print


 http://www.vnbiblio.com/?m=201106
Notice from Christie’s about the Auction <http://www.vnbiblio.com/?p=710>
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Sven Becker, a specialist in Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s has sent me this email:


IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING CHRISTIE’S AUCTION OF FINE PRINTED BOOKS, 13 JUNE 2011:

Lots 291-401 were sold prior to the auction and have been withdrawn.

Christie’s are pleased to announce that this fine collection (Vladimir Nabokov: Books and Objects from the Collection of Dmitri Nabokov) was sold prior to the auction by private treaty to an important collector who appreciated the great cultural significance of this group of books and objects, and the unique opportunity of acquiring en bloc the last substantial part of the Nabokov family archive. The price paid was in excess of £500,000, which reflects what a rare opportunity it is to obtain a collection of such scope and quality by one of the great masters of Russian and American literature.

This may or may not clarify the original report from mysouth.su. There, the original report stated that the price was “500,000 pounds higher than the overall estimate for all lots”. That means to me £500K more than some sum of the estimates (the high ones?). That could be as much as £734,000 (with the house’s 25% premium thrown in). Or maybe after all it’s “only” £500,001.
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