Press Release

Vladimir Nabokov's Life and Work Unveiled in Centennial Exhibition at The New York Public Library

Meticulously drafted butterfly drawings, along with equally precise diaries, notes, and manuscripts are among the materials that help form a portrait of the brilliant yet elusive novelist Vladimir Nabokov in an exhibition opening at The New York Public Library on the 100th Anniversary of the writer's birth. Nabokov Under Glass: A Centennial Exhibition provides a chronological look at Nabokov's life and literary output, starting with poems of his teenage years, through his latest novels and memoirs. The exhibit is on view from April 23 through August 21, 1999 in the Library's Edna Barnes Salomon Room on the third floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Admission is free. An online version of Nabokov Under Glass, has also been created.

Nabokov's writing is rich and vivid but can also be perplexing. "I have been floundering in the mind of that American genius Vladimir Vladimirovitch Nabokov," wrote critic Alfred Kazin in regard to the writer's 1969 novel Ada. His works deal with serious subjects and situations, but rely on a brilliant humor laced through his prose. "While I keep everything on the brink of parody," he was once quoted as saying, "there must be on the other hand an abyss of seriousness, and I must make my way along this narrow ridge between my own truth and the caricature of it."

With materials drawn primarily from the Nabokov Archive in the Library's Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, the exhibition provides a rare level of insight into Nabokov's powers of creation and his development as a writer. Among the items to be shown, nearly all of which are on view for the first time, is the manuscript to Music, a poem Nabokov wrote in 1914 as a teenager and is considered the earliest document in the writer's hand. Among other early items included is a 1917 notebook with colorful metrical diagrams of Russian poetry. The  exhibition also includes examples of correspondence between Nabokov and his various editors, including Allen Tate at Henry Holt, James Laughlin at New Directions, and Katherine White and William Maxwell at The New Yorker.

The index cards and typescripts for his novels Ada or Ardor, Transparent Things, and Look at the Harlequins! are included, as are index cards and notes for his majestic memoir Speak, Memory and notes and typescripts for the English translations of many of his earlier Russian novels. The manuscripts for his own translation of Lolita into Russian and his version of the screenplay for Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film adaptation of the novel are also on view.

Nabokov, the Writer
Vladimir Nabokov was one of the most important writers of the 20th century. He was born to a patrician Russian family on April 23, 1899 and fled with them to England in 1919 after the change in power following the Russian Revolution. He earned a degree from Cambridge University in 1922 and then lived in Berlin and Paris. Nabokov moved to the United States in 1940 and began writing in English (his previous works had been written in Russian). In the U.S., Nabokov earned his living teaching literature at Cornell and Wellesley while establishing his reputation as a writer. In 1959, he and his wife, Véra, with their son Dmitri, moved to Switzerland where they took up residence in the Hotel Palace in Montreux. Nabokov died in Switzerland in 1977. In addition to his writing career, Nabokov also intently pursued his lifelong interest in butterflies, becoming an accomplished lepidopterist. The exhibition features many of his butterfly drawings, as well as a special pass the author was granted to study at the American Museum of Natural History.

Nabokov's novels written in Russian include Laughter in the Dark (1932) and The Gift (1937). Nabokov later translated these works into English, often revising them to the extent that his translations were nearly new works. His novels written originally in English include Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), Pale Fire (1962), and Ada or Ardor (1969). He wrote two autobiographical works, Conclusive Evidence (1951) and Speak, Memory (1966). Several collections of his poems and stories have been published, as have his college lectures.

"There seem to be at least as many Nabokovs as there are readers of his work," said Rodney Philips, Curator of the Berg Collection and Curator of Nabokov Under Glass. "Yet behind all the masks, there is still only one man, whom the writer once called the 'anthropomorphic deity impersonated by me.' This exhibition unveils that impersonation by focusing on the artifacts of Nabokov's artifices."

Nabokov Archive, Berg Collection
The Library's Nabokov Archive was acquired for the Berg Collection in 1991 from Nabokov's son, Dmitri. It is a massive and important collection of materials documenting the creative output of the literary genius. Among the materials it comprises are 31 diaries, numerous scrapbooks kept by Nabokov's mother and wife, large amounts of correspondence, heavily annotated literary works from which the author taught, drawings of butterflies he created throughout his life, manuscripts of chess problems that Nabokov devised as a pastime, and rare clippings of his early publications in scarce émigré publications.

The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature is one of America's important collections of literary first editions, rare books, autograph letters, and manuscripts. It was presented to the Library in 1940 by Dr. Albert A. Berg, a famous New York surgeon and trustee of the Library, in memory of his brother and fellow collector, Dr. Henry W. Berg.

Nabokov Under Glass: A Centennial Exhibition is on view from April 23 through August 21, 1999 in the Library's Edna Barnes Salomon Room (room 316) on the third Floor of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Exhibition hours are Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Closed Sunday). Admission is free. Additional information about Library exhibitions is available at 212-869-8089.
 

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