Status Updates From The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov,...

Oh it’s ON! Heavyweight Alexander Gershenkron enters the ring.

I urgently need to read Nab's Onegin translation. Also urgently need to learn French.

I think I would have liked Edmund Wilson if I had known him. He recognized genius and helped VN when VN needed help the most (1940/41, newly arrived in America) and for that we should all thank him. VN comes across in an unflattering light for his self-confidence bordering on arrogance. I mean Wilson was just learning Russian, how can VN make fun of him for making mistakes?

The Fort Sumter-ish rule governing these low-stakes literary skirmishes is: Always return fire.

Actual quote from the book:

“Translations, it has been said, are like one’s mistress. She can be beautiful or she can be faithful, but she cannot be both”

Lolita dominated US best seller lists until it was replaced by Doctor Zhivago

A character called Epstein leaving Doubleday because of their refusal to publish Lolita