Robert Alter (1935- ), professor of Comparative Literature and Hebrew at University of California, Berkeley, is one of the most distinguished academic stylists and deep analysts of style to write about Nabokov, both in his own works and in relation to the traditions of self-conscious fiction. A friend and office-mate of Alfred Appel, Jr., in his early academic career, he responded to Appel's invitation to contribute to the 1970 Triquarterly Festschrift for VN's seventieth birthday.
