Nabokov's Butterfly and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books

Nabokov's Butterfly and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books
Author: R. A. Gekoski
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780786714520

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A collector of rare books shares his personal experiences with twenty important volumes and other literary items, including a signed copy of Sylvia Plath's The Colossus, a copy of Nabokov's Lolita from Graham Greene, and the sale of J. R. R. Tolkien's college gown.

Nabokov's Butterfly

Nabokov's Butterfly
Author: Rick Gekoski
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2006-06-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780786716548

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A first edition of Ulysses sold for 460,000 in auction at Christie's in 2002. The price might have upset the union chief, convicted gangster, and major-league James Joyce book collector Dennis Silverman, who had sold his copy, signed and inscribed by the author, for a mere 135,000 ten years earlier. Great books attract all kinds and come to fascinating destinies of their own, as Nabokov's Butterfly amply demonstrates. Here, noted author and rare book dealer Rick Gekoski — whose vocation led to the BBC radio series titled Rare Books, Rare People, — profiles twenty editions of major books that have passed through his hands and made publishing history, as they have become the legends of rare book collectors. Sued by J. D. Salinger, harassed by Harold Pinter, berated by Ted Hughes who unloaded his personal and passionately inscribed copy of Sylvia Plath's The Colossus, Gekoski is a convivial participant in these histories, including his sale of Mr. Tolkien's college gown. He recalls one day purchasing from Graham Greene his first edition of Lolita, with Nabokov's signature drawing of a butterfly inside, and on the next day he sold it to Elton John's lyricist at a 10,000 profit.

Nabokov's Butterflies

Nabokov's Butterflies
Author: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 820
Release: 2000
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9780807085400

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"Literature and Lepidoptera dance an elaborate pas de deux through seventy years of Vladimir Nabokov's life, from his boyhood in Russia to his life as an emigre in the Crimea, Berlin, France, the United States, and finally in Switzerland. An American literary giant, Nabokov also produced first-rate work as a scientist, and in his fiction and elsewhere eloquently advocated attention to the details of the natural world and promoted the delights of discovery." "Nabokov's Butterflies presents Nabokov's twin passions through an astonishingly rich array of novel selections, stories, poems, screenplay, autobiography, criticism, lecturers, articles, reviews, interviews, letters, and notes, plus a wealth of beautiful and fanciful drawings by Nabokov and photographs of him in the field."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Groaning Shelf

The Groaning Shelf
Author: Pradeep Sebastian
Publisher: Hachette India
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2012-03-12
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9350093634

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Notes from a bibliophile on the lure of rare and first editions, the beauty of dust jackets, the thrill of browsing in antiquarian bookshops, the bibliomania of book thieves, movies about books, and the inner life of a reader. The Groaning Shelf is not so much a book about books as a book about books about books. These little essays capture the drama of bookish obsession, the joys and snares of the bookish life and the pleasures of bibliophily.

Rare Books Uncovered

Rare Books Uncovered
Author: Rebecca Rego Barry
Publisher: Voyageur Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2018-02-27
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 0760361584

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Precious old books found in unlikely places, from the family that avoided foreclosure through a book in their attic to a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle in a local fundraiser.

A Splendid Ecstasy

A Splendid Ecstasy
Author: Emma S. Etuk Ph. D.
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2010-04-20
Genre:
ISBN: 1449086330

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Nabokov's Butterflies

Nabokov's Butterflies
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
Total Pages: 800
Release: 2000-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780807085424

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Unpublished and Uncollected WritingsEdited and Annotated by Brian Boyd and Robert Michael PyleNew Translations from the Russian by Dmitri NabokovLiterature and Lepidoptera dance an elaborate pas de deux through seventy years of Vladimir Nabokov's life, from his boyhood in Russia to his life as an émigré in the Crimea, Berlin, France, the United States, and finally in Switzerland. An American literary giant, Nabokov also produced first-rate work as a scientist, and in his fiction and elsewhere eloquently advocated attention to the details of the natural world and promoted the delights of discovery.Nabokov's Butterflies presents Nabokov's twin passions through an astonishingly rich array of novels, stories, poems, screenplay, autobiography, criticism, lectures, articles, reviews, interviews, letters, and notes, plus a wealth of beautiful and fanciful drawings by Nabokov and photographs of him in the field.Here for the first time, newly translated from the Russian by Dmitri Nabokov, is Nabokov's most intense amalgam of literature and Lepidoptera, his forty-page afterword to The Gift-cut short by his switch from Russian to English and from Europe to America at the midpoint of his life-an immensely rich and revealing work. Here too are scores of fascinating letters to his mother, wife, and colleagues; the sui generis scientific articles; "The Admirable Anglewing," an intriguing entomological tale; a taste of the prodigious work he expended on his ultimately unrealized Butterflies of Europe; and ten poems newly translated from the original Russian.Nabokov's Butterflies is a major literary event: not only in chronological scope but also in genre no other volume of Nabokov's writing encompasses such variety. It is, as Dmitri Nabokov claims, a book that "would have warmed the cockles of Father's heart," and a must-have for admirers of the great novelist and all who appreciate the joys of Lepidoptera.

Selected Letters, 1940–1977

Selected Letters, 1940–1977
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Publisher: HMH
Total Pages: 627
Release: 2012-09-06
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 0544106555

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“Wonderful, compulsively readable, delicious” personal correspondences, spanning decades in the life and literary career of the author of Lolita (The Washington Post Book World). An icon of twentieth-century literature, Vladimir Nabokov was a novelist, poet, and playwright, whose personal life was a fascinating story in itself. This collection of more than four hundred letters chronicles the author’s career, recording his struggles in the publishing world, the battles over Lolita, and his relationship with his wife, among other subjects, and gives a surprising look at the personality behind the creator of such classics as Pale Fire and Pnin. “Dip in anywhere, and delight follows.” —John Updike

Fine Lines

Fine Lines
Author: Stephen Hardwick Blackwell
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2016-01-01
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0300194552

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This volume reproduces 154 of Russian-American novelist and entomologist Vladimir Nabokov's drawings, few of which have ever been seen in public, and presents essays by ten leading scientists and Nabokov scholars. The contributors underscore the significance of Nabokov's drawings as scientific documents, evaluate his visionary contributions to evolutionary biology and systematics, and offer insights into his unique artistic perception and creativity. Showcasing color drawings of butterflies' distinctive markings and anatomy as well, all as part of his work at the American Museum of Natural History and Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.