Dear Jansy,

Your post prompted me to look up this date, July 5, 1915, to see if anything exciting happened. Not really - but two days later the Lusitania The ship's name was taken from Lusitania, an ancient Roman province on the west of Iberian Peninsula the region that now is Portugal.was sunk, so that's something. Jean Cocteau was born July 5, 1899. I doubt Nabokov knew or cared. Sarah Siddons, famous British actress was born 7/5/1755.

You don't suppose Nabokov was making fun of the 4th of July? Why the fifth? 

Others born on this day include P.T. Barnum, Cecil Rhodes, Wanda Landowska, Dolly the Sheep, Henry Cabot Lodge, Janos Starker, Georges Pompidous and George Costakis. Oh, and Shirley Knight (I like her, saw her on the stage a few years back), quite a few footballers (soccer players) - that's about it.

Carolyn


From: Jansy <jansy@AETERN.US>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thu, May 9, 2013 6:38:04 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Responses from Carolyn Kunin on birthday and muscat

Jerry Friedman:"Kinbote tells us several times that Shade was born on July 5, 1898.  He also tells us that he told Sybil that day was also his birthday (n. 181) and that as King Charles he met Disa during his birthday celebration on July 5, 1947 (n. 275), not that I believe him about either.  Finally, he says that when Gradus saw a mention of July 1, 1979, in the New York Times, he thought he'd be 64 four days later, which puts his birthday on July 5 (n. 949).  That also means his birth year as 1915, the same as Kinbote's. I'm embarrassed to see I left that reference to n. 949 out of my timeline.  I may fix it.
 
Jansy Mello: In the midst of  innumerous postings, sent two days ago, I mentioned the quote you need issuing directly from Kinbote's pen: 
" Charles Kinbote notes that "are not birthdays mere conventions? Conventions or not, but it was my birthday too — small difference of sixteen years, that’s all." Kinbote was not born when Shade turned 11, but 16 ( in July 5,1915?).
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All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.