In her memoirs "На берегах Сены" (On the Seine's
Banks) Irina Odoevtsev mentions Ivan Bunin referring to Iza Kremer as "эта
идиотка Иза Кремер" ("that idiot Iza Kremer").
Speaking of fairy tales: my "Ada as a Russian Fairy
Tale Spun by the Phoenix and Sung by the Sirin" was published in The
Nabokovian # 55 (Fall 2005). If I'm not mistaken, it is also available in
Zembla.
I watched tonight a TV film about Leonid Kanegisser, the poet
(1896-1918) who shot dead the head of the Petrograd Cheka Moisey
Uritsky. LK (an offspring of a wealthy Jewish family) was compared to VN,
who, according to the film's author (one Innokentiy Ivanov), used his
father's money for publishing (and advertising in all major newspapers) his
first book of poetry. But this is not true, for VN had a fortune of his
own!
Alexey Sklyarenko