3/29/03Professor Akiko Nakata is preparing a special treat for Nabokov's birthday celebration.
6/21/02
A beautiful photograph and a very nice bookmark are available for printing and admiring at the Annex. Both are presented courtesy of the recently released Horst Tappe Nabokov Photo Book, who have also sent in a press release (in German) and a quote (in English). (Ordering information here.)
Liebe Nabokov-Freunde,From Charlotte Contesse-Barraud, Sarah Cuendet, Céline Eidenbenzam 2. Juli 2002 jährt sich zum 25. Mal Vladimir Nabokovs Todestag.
Die Schweizerische Landesbibliothek zeigt aus diesem Anlass die zwischen 1961 und 1977 entstandenen Aufnahmen des Fotografen Horst Tappe.
Eröffnung: 21. Juni 2002, 18 Uhr
Die Ausstellung endet am 22. August.
http://www.snl.ch/d/fuehr/index.htm
Vom 15. bis 19. Juli werden die Fotografien im St. Petersburger Geburtshaus Nabokovs während "The Nabokov Symposium at the V. V. Nobokov Museum" präsentiert.Das Literaturhaus Basel zeigt die Exposition im September 2002.
http://www.literaturhaus.ch
Weitere Ausstellungen in Chiasso, Paris und Leipzig sind in Vorbereitung.Bereits 2001 erschien das Buch
Horst Tappe: NABOKOV
Hrsg. v. Tilo Richter
Christoph Merian Verlag Basel
64 Seiten, zahlr. Duplex-Abb., gebunden
Deutsch/Englisch/Französisch
CHF 29,00 / EUR 17
http://www.christoph-merian-verlag.ch
Die Vorzugsausgabe von 39 Exemplaren im Schuber
enthält je eine signierte Originalfotografie.
CHF 320,00 / EUR 215,00
http://www.trichter.de/buecher/nabokov/nabokov.html
Brian Boyd (Nabokov News):"No other photographer had such immediate and intimate access to Nabokov over so many years as Montreux-based Horst Tappe, who shows Nabokov inside and outside the Montreux-Palace Hotel and in his summer butterfly haunts in the Alps. Many of the photographs are already famous. Others, never published before, promise to become no less so."
REZENSIONSEXEMPLARE AUF ANFRAGE PER MAIL: trichterNOSPAM@trichter.de
Vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse und
viele Grüsse aus Basel
Tilo Richter
Art Historians, Lausanne (Switzerland):Editorial notice taken from the book NABOKOV by Horst Tappe, edited by Tilo Richter, Basel/Switzerland It was on a winter afternoon that we rang the doorbell at Horst Tappe’s apartment. The door opened into a hallway lined with framed portraits: the faces of Picasso, Stravinsky, Dali, Chaplin, Pound, Garcia Marquez, Patricia Highsmith and others are here, frozen in time at the instant of the photographer’s click.6/18/02A few moments later, over a cup of coffee in the living room, we explained to Horst Tappe our project for a Vladimir Nabokov exhibit: to celebrate the centenary of his birth and the 16 years he spent in Montreux. No sooner said, than his eyes lit up, and our timid host evoked in a few brief sentences his encounter with the brilliant writer. His discovery of Nabokov’s refuge came about by accident: he happened to be in Peter Ustinov’s apartment at the Montreux Palace Hotel, and heard the actor remind his children not to annoy Nabokov who lived just above, hard at work on a novel. A short time later, young Horst showed up at the upper floor, was invited in, and from then on became a friend, and privileged photographer of the writer.
Listening attentively, we then began to study some of the wellknown shots. More than the author of Lolita, they revealed a man going about his daily tasks, a man with a purpose, a man of passion who was both stubborn and charming. Butterfly net in hand, pursuing the rare specimen, bent over his writing desk, or out for a stroll, a solitary walker or with his wife Véra by his side -- these are just some of the surprising images.
To these images we added various texts of our choice, both for the exhibit and for this book, significant passages from Nabokov’s works which accompany the black and white illustrations: his autobiography Speak, Memory and his selection of interviews, Strong Opinions. His prose, at once meditative and anecdotal, mocking and to the point, was marked by self-derision and an erudite man’s compunction to speak of himself with dignity and restraint.
These are the origins of this small work -- the result of a friendly collaboration which began in Montreux. It combines Horst Tappe’s photographs and Vladimir Nabokov’s writings. Two idioms speaking the same language, two worlds which reflect and complement each other, inviting us to contemplate their playful, provocative realm.
Professor Boyd's invaluable Nabokov's Ada: the Place of Consciousness is available as an Adobe Acrobat e-book and now also in paperback. (More from the publisher.) (Via the Nabokov-L forum.)
2/12/02
A Nabokov photo book has been released in Switzerland. The press release from the publisher follows below:
… edited by Christoph Merian VerlagInformation on the publisher at http://www.christoph-merian-verlag.ch/. Ordering info.Tilo Richter
HORST TAPPE: NABOKOV‹Nabokov› documents the encounter of two fascinating personalities. For fifteen years, the Swiss photographer Horst Tappe portraited the famous Russian author Vladimir Nabokov with his camera.
The photographer Horst Tappe first met Vladimir Nabokov in the Montreux Palace Hotel (Switzerland) in 1962. Until Nabokov’s death in 1977, Tappe photographed the world-famous author of Lolita in his privacy. These fascinating photos are of great interest and high documentary value, in particular those of the passionate scientist catching butterflies. For the very first time, Tappe's photographs are published as a set in an attractive volume, completed by numerous quotations of the author Nabokov.
No other photographer had such immediate and intimate access to Nabokov over so many years as Montreux-based Horst Tappe, who shows Nabokov inside and outside the Montreux-Palace Hotel and in his summer butterfly haunts in the Alps. Many of the photographs are already famous. Others, never published before, promise to become no less so. (Nabokov News, Brian Boyd)
12/18/01
Penguin Illustrated Lives edition of Nabokov's Life published in Britain. (Available via Amazon UK.)
10/16/01
The Luzhin Defence is now available on VHS and DVD. Also, a recent article mentions the upcoming adaptation of Laughter in the Dark. Here's the relevant paragraph:
Molina (next seen starring with Salma Hayek in the Julie Taymor-directed "Frida") is already plotting his next indie, an adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov novel ``Laughter in the Dark'' to be directed by Gregory Mosher. Pic's about a man undone by an obsession with a woman, getting caught up in a triangle between her and her boyfriend, a role that James Franco is eyeing.5/24/01An acute and fair (but negative) review of The Luzhin Defense from Scott Tobias of The Onion's AV Club. (Thanks to a pair of ragged claws in the Waxwing Club.)
4/20/01
The Luzhin Defense is going into limited release in the US today. Here is a UPI review of the film (quoting yours truly in the next-to-last paragraph), and here are some more reviews.
Internet Movie Database info on the movie, its director, its leading Luzhin, and its lovely Watson.
To see if it's playing in your area, try checking here.
9/6/00
Some additional Defence reviews:
-- Reuters. (Positive.)
Without slipping into caricature, Turturro makes the shambolic, almost extraterrestrial Luzhin a sympathetic, often funny figure, and Watson, more than ever recalling a young Sarah Miles, makes Natalia a tower of quiet strength, saying more with a raised eyebrow or smile than anything in the script.-- The Guardian. (Not so positive.)
In many ways, Gorris's film is the Nabokov adaptation that gets closest to the spirit of its source. But inevitably it pickles the butterfly of Nabokov's conception and leaves it inert, pinned under a glass screen.7/19/00According to a July 13 Reuters article, The Luzhin Defence (an adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov novel) will premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The official site says it will be on Tuesday, August 22 at 6:00 pm. Be sure to check it out if you're in the area. The relevant portion of the article follows below:
Major premieres include Terence Davies' costumer "The House of Mirth," from the Edith Wharton novel, with Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz; and the world premiere of Marleen Gorris' "The Luzhin Defence," an adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov story, starring John Turturro and Emily Watson.-- Entire article available here.
-- Edinburgh International Film Festival site here.
-- Festival info on The Defense here.
-- Internet Movie Database info on The Defense here.
4/12/00
Some Pulitzer Links:
Stacy Schiff has won the 2000 Pulitzer for Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov). It's wonderful news and the award is well-deserved, and Waxwing extends its congratulations (along with a belated thanks for an ever entertaining and absorbing book). "'I think I'm going to get outside and take a walk.' - Stacy Schiff, winner of the biography prize for Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), who is nine months pregnant and on bed rest." (From The Associated Press's Quotes From Pulitzer Prize Winners.)
The 2000 Pulitzer Prizes (Free Registration to The New York Times Required)
Contains information on all the winners, as well as book reviews and excerpts.An Interview With Stacy Schiff
From the useful and wonderful Zembla.Stacy Schiff
A brief biography of the biographer.Yahoo's Full Coverage of the Pulitzers
A very good review of Vera (From The Guardian)
4/6/00
Addenda to 3/28/00 (See below): The Atlantic has created an excellent accompanying site to their Nabokov cover story -- while this distinguished magazine's web efforts are always outstanding, they've done particularly well here, and features audio of Dmitri Nabokov, VN's son, reading one of his father's poems.
The good stuff is at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/04/nabokov.htm. Enjoy!
3/28/00
The next few months should see a lot of Nabokov activity.
New books: Now available are Professor Brian Boyd's Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery, which offers a quirky but well-defended (and at any rate engrossing) take on John Shade and Charles Kinbote, and Kurt Johnson and Steven L. Coates's Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius. Soon-to-be released (one hopes) is Christine Rydel's Nabokov Who's Who: A Complete Guide to Characters and Proper Names in the Works of Vladimir Nabokov (Amazon lists the release date as May 2000).
New VN book: Nabokov's Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings is due out this coming month (April 2000). It is edited by Professor Boyd. The book features VN's lepidopteral papers, lep-related excerpts from previously published fiction, and some unpublished fiction -- the latter may include material from The Gift.
Coinciding with publication of the new book, The Atlantic Monthly's April issue has a cover story and a lot of Nabokov material. So check it out.
Not to be outdone, the current issue of McSweeney's (a terrific, terrific (and funny, funny) quarterly edited by Dave Eggers) has a booklet (this particular issue (number four) is (accurately) described in their site as "a box, within which are fourteen separate booklets, most of the stories having been granted their own binding and color covers. They look very good.") entitled "Paperback Nabokov", on "the author's endless efforts, mostly in vain, to improve the covers of his books, in particular their paperback incarnations. With four color pages of rare paperback covers, and an appendix of related correspondence." It is written by Paul Maliszewski and it is terrific, and it has some lovely illustrations, and I am very jealous.
McSweeneys might not be available at the local bookstore. But it also might, so look and see. Subscription & ordering information available here.
11/15/99
A film adaptation of Ada might be in the works (and Arthur Penn might be involved), but even if not, this writer for The Sunday Times is correct in saying that "a few films cry out to be made," and that Ada is one of them. (Many thanks to the Nabokov-L forum for the info.)
10/6/99
Lo's Diary, a poor re-telling of Lolita, has been released. (See below for more.) To read Dmitri Nabokov's (VN's son) response, also included in the book, click here. The site, Nerve, also offers excerpts from the novel. (Many thanks to the NABOKOV-L forum for the information.)
The Barcelona Review, a respected trilingual journal of cutting edge fiction, is sponsoring a Nabokov Quiz. Winner gets the VN book of his or her choice. While you're there, be sure to check out their fiction and poetry -- top-notch. (Contest ends 15 October 1999.)
4/21/99
Random House has released Stacy Schiff's Vera, a biography of Vladimir Nabokov's wife. Critical reception has been mostly positive, although Brian Boyd, writer of the definitive VN biographies, has written a very good review that expresses dissapointment with some lacunae in the book.
Amazon Books has a very entertaining article by Stacy Schiff herself, dealing for the most part with the difficulties involved in writing about Vera. Zembla, always exhaustive and always delightful, gives us an interview with Ms. Schiff.
The New York Times joins the centennial shindig. Registration is free but required.
Also:
A seven-minute segment on Vladimir Nabokov will air on Morning Edition this Friday to honour VV's 100th. Dimitri Nabokov and Stacy Schiff are amongst those interviewed.Also:
Vladimir Nabokov: An exhibition marking the centenary of his birth.4/19/99The exhibition will focus on the building and continuing growth of Harvard's collections. On view will be not only literary first editions, but also significant dedication copies, periodicals, translations, manuscript material from the whole of Nabokov's carrer, and items of lepidopteral interest, drawn from Harvard Univeristy and private collections. VN's Harvard connections will be also emphasized. Curated by Golda Steinberg and John Rutter.
The exhibition will be on view at the Widener Memorial Rotunda, Widener Library, Harvard University, May 4 - June 2, 1999. Monday - Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Yet another centennial celebration, this time from CNN interactive. Please visit their excellent Nabokov site: it's loaded with information, beautifully designed and totally approachable. (Waxwing is linked there, which is both thrilling and way humbling, the last because their site is simply heads and shoulders beyond anything I could even come close to designing -- notice, by the by, the emerald pattern on their pages.)
4/2/99
More centennial celebrations!
From The Institute of History of Material Culture:
"The Independent Institute of History of Material Culture and T. Burakova’ s art studio are presenting to public organizations, museums and art galleries the Literary-Art Exhibition dedicated to the Centenary of Vladimir Nabokov."
Visit their web-site at http://www.art.uralinfo.ru/FINEART/Painting/Exhibition/index_en.htm
4/1/99
Centennary celebrations!
From PEN:
Time Sensitive Information: April 15, 1999
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL:
Kristin Eliasberg, (212) 334-1660, ext. 109To honor Vladimir Nabokov on the occasion of his centenary, PEN
American Center and The New Yorker present The Nabokov Centenary
Celebration - Thursday April 15th 1999 @ Town Hall in NYC.
Featuring a distinguished group of writers reading from Nabokov
and presenting reminiscences and reflections, the evening will
encompass fresh interpretations of Nabokov as a literary master
of the twentieth century, as well as offer glimpses of the man
behind the work.The high-profile literary evening will feature eminent writers
and critics who have known and admired the work of Nabokov, such
as:-David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker
-Dmitri Nabokov, son of Vladimir and Vera Nabokov
-Martin Amis, critically acclaimed British novelist and
friend of the Nabokov family
-Alfred Appel, literary critic
-Brian Boyd, Nabokov biographer
-Richard Ford, novelist
-Joyce Carol Oates, novelist
-Elizabeth Hardwick, renowned essayist, novelist, and critic
-Michael Scammell, biographer and translator
-Stacy Schiff - biography of Vera Nabokov will be published
in SpringTickets now available through Ticketmaster, 212.307.4100 or at
Town
Hall, beginning on March 26th.
For more information contact PEN American Center,212.334.1660, ext. 102
PEN American Center
568 Broadway
New York, N.Y. 10012
2/10/99
A new film version of Laughter in the Dark seems to be in the works.
From Variety:
Legit director Gregory Mosher to helm first film1/9/99By Monica Roman
NEW YORK (Variety) - Stage director-producer Gregory Mosher will make his feature film directorial debut with ``Laughter in the Dark'' for the Shooting Gallery and Haft Entertainment.
Mosher's screenplay is a modern-day version of the Vladimir Nabokov story about a foolish middle-aged art dealer, an immoral young artist and the ambitious woman they unknowingly share.
``Laughter'' is the second co-production between Larry Meistrich's the Shooting Gallery and Haft, which are both based in Gotham. They previously collaborated on Martin Duffy's ``The Bumblebee Flies Anyway,'' which is set for a spring theatrical release.
The former head of the Lincoln Center Theatre, Mosher's theatrical career has spanned three decades. Among the more than 50 plays Mosher has directed are the premieres of David Mamet's ``American Buffalo,'' ``Glengarry Glen Ross'' and ``Speed the Plow.''
Mosher has produced, and often directed, new works by such writers as Samuel Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Elaine May, David Rabe and Stephen Sondheim.
His recent production of John Leguizamo's ``Freak'' won both Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards.
``It's a pleasure to be working with the bold and innovative Larry Meistrich and his company,'' said Mosher. ``Their enthusiasm for Nabokov's astonishing novel and their expertise in New York filmmaking, where this film is set, is everything anyone could ask for.''
The Shooting Gallery has two films at this week's Sundance Film Festival -- Nancy Savoca's ``The 24 Hour Woman'' starring Rosie Perez and Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Hampton Fancher's ``The Minus Man'' starring Owen Wilson.
Earlier this week, the Shooting Gallery inked a pact with Loews Cineplex Entertainment to deliver exclusive indie film programming in a dozen major cities (Daily Variety, Jan. 27).
In 1998, Haft produced ``Rear Window'' starring Christopher Reeve for ABC, Agnieszka Holland's indie feature ``The Third Miracle'' with American Zoetrope and Phoenician Films, and ``Pirates of Silicon Valley'' for TNT.
More late news: The New Yorker presented, in its winter fiction issue (December 28, 1998 & January 4, 1999), a beautiful, hilarious "review" of Speak, Memory written by Nabokov himself as a kind of appendix or conclusion to his memoir but never published. This piece will also appear in a new edition of Speak, Memory -- on which more later.
11/30/98Farrar, Straus & Giroux has dropped Lo's Diary. (See below.)
10/14/98
The estate of Vladimir Nabokov is suing an Italian writer over a poor, cheap, and tasteless "re-telling" of Lolita. Here are some choice excerpts from an October 14 New York Times article:
"...A distaff version of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita has set off a legal battle over copyright infringement and the limits of artistic borrowing...
"At issue here, apparently for the first time, is whether a work fresh enough to be still covered by copyright can be used as extensively as Lolita has been.
"The new book, Lo's Diary, a first novel by Pia Pera, a 42-year-old Italian short-story writer, has been published in Italy and the Netherlands. But with the licensing of English-language rights in Britain and the United States, the Nabokov estate, represented by the author's son, Dmitri, filed suit on Thursday in Federal court in Manhattan to block American publication by Farrar, Straus & Giroux next July.
"'It is, in a word, a rip-off,' according to court documents filed by the estate's lawyer, Peter L. Skolnik, of Roseland, N.J. The estate also said that Pera's 'inferior and amateurish merchandise' harms the reputation of Nabokov, who died in 1977, and seeks to capitalize on his work, which has been translated into at least 20 languages, sold 50 million copies and been made into two movies."
Read the full article here.
In more cheerful news, Zembla, the best web-site for info on Nabokov, has gotten a complete and very hip make-over. Check them out.
9/16/98
A rare (ha) week of almost complete absent - mindedness. Cornell has been celebrating a Nabokov centenary and, whilst fully aware of it, I let it go by unmentioned. Ack! For those of us who missed it, there is a very good New York Times article on the event (one caveat: Nabokov was actually very pleased with the critic who summed up Lolita as being about "Old Europe debauching young America," or "Young America debauching old Europe."). There is also a program description at the Zembla page.
Lolita was broadcast five days ago on Showtime. It'll be shown again on the 11th, and probably a few more times after that in August. The movie will make it to theatres in September.
The next issue (Fall, 1998) of Conjunctions will feature a recently discovered, heretofore unpublished Nabokov story (described in the preview as "brief yet extraordinary").