Priglashenie na kazn'. Paris, 1938 (Invitation to a Beheading, 1959)

Nabokov wrote this anti-totalitarian novel in "a burst of spontaneous generation," composing the first draft in Berlin during a short hiatus from his major Russian novel, Dar [The Gift], during the summer of 1934, when Hitler's presence had become oppressive. He continued to revise as Véra prepared the typescript that winter, and its Sovremennye zapiski serialization ran from June 1935 to March 1936. As late as 1967, he still reserved "the greatest esteem" for this novel - while feeling "most affection" for Lolita - even over Pale Fire and The Gift. It was the first title to be picked up by Radio Liberty's CIA-sponsored publication project, which was devoted to bringing émigré literature, censored as little as possible and distributed gratis, into the former Soviet Union under contrived publishing house imprints.

In 1959, Invitation to a Beheading became the first in a lifelong series of translations by Dmitri Nabokov of his father's stories, novels, poetry, drama, essays, and letters, both "in collaboration with the author" and on his own. Then twenty-five years old, Dmitri already had wide experience in translation, including a collaboration with his father on a translation of Lermontov's Hero of Our Times. He prepared the literal translation, which his father reviewed, noting years later that "the only corrections which its transformation into English could profit by were routine ones. . . . My son proved to be a marvelously congenial translator. . . ." Despite Nabokov's enthusiasm for his son's efforts, Véra admitted to one friend: "Poor Dmitri did not get enough credit from the papers. . . . For reasons of copyright, this translation had to be described as done 'in collaboration with the author.'"

The items listed below pertain to Nabokov's life and career and are the contents of the exhibition at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, on view from April 23 through August 21, 1999. This checklist, primarily of items from the Library's Nabokov Archive, is included here to provide a sense of the rich holdings in this special collection.

Vladimir and Dmitri Nabokov, Cannes, Summer 1937
Photograph by Véra Nabokov
Berg Collection

V. Sirin [Vladimir Nabokov]
Priglashenie na kazn'
Paris: Dom Knigi, [1938]
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
Invitation to a Beheading
Translated by Dmitri Nabokov in collaboration with the author
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1959
Berg Collection