"A Bit of Haze is Quite Indispensable Here": Creative Compromises and Narrative Clues in Nabokov's Letters to American Editors

Abstract

Abstract:This paper challenges the myth of Nabokov's creative invincibility by addressing the writer's openness to editorial suggestions and even direct interferences in his work in the 1940-60s, the time of his early tentative exploration and, later, triumphant conquest of the American literary market. Grounded in a detailed analysis of Nabokov's correspondence with editors of American periodicals, the New Yorker and Playboy among them, it aims to compare the very Nabokovian project of educating an American reader to the unexpectedly long-term and involved process of his own "schooling" as an American writer. Since Nabokov was sometimes obliged to reveal his literary secrets to editorial teams in order to maintain the integrity and hidden complexity of his narrative patterns for a larger audience, the letters cited in this essay also clarify some enigmatic artistic choices in such works as Pnin and The Eye.