Russian Stories

By 1939, Nabokov had changed his language of composition permanently to English, although he still indulged in occasional Russian poetry and frequent translations, and had amassed nearly fifty Russian stories. The first known published story, "Nezhit" ("The Sprite"), appeared in Rul' in January 1921. Most of his short fiction after that, which started appearing regularly in 1923, featured Russian émigré characters ensconced in Berlin. Fifteen of these stories were included, along with twenty-four poems, in Vozvrashchenie Chorba [The Return of Chorb] in 1930; twelve of them accompanied his novella, Sogliadatai [The Eye], in 1938. In 1956, the Chekhov Publishing House in New York agreed to bring out a volume of uncollected Russian stories from that period, as Vesna v Fial'te i drugie rasskazy [Spring in Fialta and Other Stories], for a considerable émigré audience with fond memories of works by "Sirin." The American success of Lolita two years later occasioned a number of translations of his Russian novels for his English-reading audience. In 1963, The New Yorker accepted his offer of several Russian stories in translation, and that year Dmitri lobbied to begin bringing all the stories from the 1920s and 30s into English. Within a decade, four collections appeared: Nabokov's Quartet (1966); A Russian Beauty and Other Stories (1973); Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories (1975); and Details of a Sunset and Other Stories (1976). ("The Vane Sisters," originally written in English, was included in two of these.)

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.

V. Sirin [Vladimir Nabokov]
"Drakon" ["Dragon"]
Typescript for an unpublished short story, Berlin, November 1924, in an album compiled by Elena Ivanovna Nabokov, 1924-25
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov, 1930
Photographer unknown
Berg Collection

V. Sirin [Vladimir Nabokov]
Vozvrashchenie Chorba [The Return of Chorb]
Berlin: Knigoizdatel'stvo, 1930
Inscribed by Nabokov in Russian to Ivan Bunin: "To Ivan Bunin, to a great master from a diligent pupil, Berlin XII. '29"
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
Vesna v Fial'te [Spring in Fialta]
New York: Chekhov Publishing House, 1956
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
"Solus Rex"
Typescript in Russian, with Nabokov's holograph corrections, ca. 1939
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
"Solus Rex"
In: Sovremmennye zapiski (Paris), LXX (April 1940)
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
A Russian Beauty and Other Stories
New York: McGraw-Hill, [1973]
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories
New York: McGraw-Hill, [1975]
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
Details of a Sunset and Other Stories
New York: McGraw-Hill, [1976]
Berg Collection