Zashchita Luzhina. Berlin, 1930 (The Defense, 1964)
Sogliadatai. Paris, 1930 (The Eye, 1965)

Zashchita Luzhina [The Defense], the novel Nabokov later described as the "story of a chess player who was crushed by his genius," was his first complete critical success. It was serialized in 1929-30 in Sovremennye zapiski, the leading Parisian émigré journal, which would publish all of his subsequent Russian novels. It was also excerpted in another Parisian paper, the weekly Poslednie novosti, and in Berlin's Rul'. It was picked up by both the German press Ullstein and the French publisher Fayard; it provoked Nina Berberova to claim that Nabokov's work validated the entire generation of émigré writers; and it drew this praise from Ivan Bunin: "This kid has snatched a gun and done away with the whole older generation, myself included." For the English-language version, The Defense, Nabokov remained quite faithful to the Russian original while aggressively revising Michael Scammell's literal translation. In an unprecedented decision, The New Yorker ran the entire novel in two installments in 1965.

Nabokov's novella Sogliadatai [The Eye], whose narrator has supposedly committed suicide as the story begins, was serialized in Sovremennye zapiski in the fall of 1930, and was also excerpted in Poslednie novosti. It did not appear in book form until 1938, when Nabokov collected it with twelve other stories, inaugurating the thirteen-story collection as the standard format for nearly all his American compilations. The English translation, The Eye, appeared in 1965 in Playboy. Phaedra later undertook its book publication, though without any accompanying stories.

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]
Zashchita Luzhina
Berlin: Knigoizdatel'stvo "Slovo," 1930
Inscribed by Nabokov in Russian to Ivan Bunin: "To friend and deeply respected Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, as a token of unwavering delight, the Author Berlin IX 30"
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov composing The Defense, Le Boulou, Pyrénées Orientales, France, 1929
Photograph by Véra Nabokov
Inscribed by Nabokov on the verso: "In 1929, East Pyrenees"
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
The Defense
Translated by Michael Scammell in collaboration with the author
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1964
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov, 1929-30
Photographer unknown
Inscribed by Nabokov on the verso in Russian to Anna Feigin: "Aniuta from Volodia. The Author of 'King, Queen, Knave' appeared in the film 'K.Q.K.'. He is undeservingly handsome. The Author of 'Luzhin's Defense' just take [an admiring] look at the endearing mug of 'Mashenka's Author and at the mug of the Author of 'Chobra' [i.e., Chobra's Return]"
Berg Collection

V. Sirin [Vladimir Nabokov]
Sogliadatai
Offprint from: Sovremennye zapiski (Paris), XLIV (November 1930)
Nabokov's copy, with stamp
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
Foreword to "The Eye"
Typescript (carbon) with Nabokov's holograph corrections, Montreux, dated April 19, 1965
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
The Eye
Translated by Dmitri Nabokov in collaboration with the author
New York: Phaedra, 1965
Berg Collection