Vladimir Nabokov, the scandalous author of Lolita and The Original of Laura, will have his love letters to his wife Vera published in 2011. His son, Dmitry, found the 300 unpublished letters in Vera’s archives. However, Vera destroyed her own letters to Vladimir. The author died in 1977, so this is quite a discovery for the literary community.
It was also Dmitry who gave permission for The Original of Laura to be edited and published in Playboy magazine. Playboy’s literary editor, Amy Grace Loyd, took on the challenge of editing The Original of Laura for publication for the December 2009 issue of the magazine.
The love letters will be published in English sometime in 2011, hopefully around Valentine’s Day. For those who read Russian, the letters were published in the Russian magazine Snob in mid-November 2010.
Translated from Russian, a language known for its terms of endearment, readers should expect a romantic and passionate side of Nabokov. In one excerpt published in The Independent, Nabokov writes:
“How can I explain to you, my joy, my golden one, my heavenly happiness, just how much I am fully yours …”
In anticipation of the publication of Nabokov’s love letters, please enjoy an interview and two articles about the legend himself:
Amy Grace Loyd, Literary Editor of Playboy, Talks Nabokov and The Original of Laura
In Search of Vladimir Nabokov in St. Petersburg, Russia
Vladimir Nabokov in the Grand Canyon & the Discovery of Butterfly Neonympha
