EDNote: Jansy Mello forwards the following blog post by U. R. Bowie, who discusses in it the history of his 1985 article "Nabokov's Influence on Gogol."  It includes exchanges with publishers of Nikolai Gogol in the US and UK, and explores reasons for various changes in the text and index in the 1973 British edition.  Mr. Bowie reproduces a letter he received from Vera Nabokov. -SB

Subject:
[Nabkv-l] A blog related to V.Nabokov's Gogol and a little more...
From:
Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@outlook.com>
Date:
2/1/2015 9:45 AM
To:
Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>


……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

U.R.Bowie  http://classical-russian-literature.blogspot.com.br/2014_08_01_archive.html

 


excerpt: In 1985, while working on my article, "Nabokov's Influence on Gogol," I wrote several times to the publisher of New Directions, James Laughlin, asking him questions about Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol.

I wanted to know why Nabokov had not incorporated the changes he made for the British edition of the book (Nikolay Gogol, 1973) into the New Directions edition. In particular, why had the "nightmare index" in the American edition not been sanitized, as it had been for the British edition.

I was especially interested in Laughlin's take on his own role in the book. Was the dialogue between Nabokov and his publisher genuinely fictitious, or could Laughlin recall having had such a conversation? Did Nabokov really suggest a huge nose for the cover art of the book?

 


Google Search
the archive
Contact
the Editors
NOJ Zembla Nabokv-L
Policies
Subscription options AdaOnline NSJ Ada Annotations L-Soft Search the archive VN Bibliography Blog

All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.