Nabokov's+butterflies

=Nabokov's Butterflies=

In addition to Nabokov's literary pursuits, he was a celebrated lepidopterist--a butterfly scholar. Below we've collected a number of resources about butterfly species discovered by Nabokov, and links to additional resources about Nabokov and butterflies.

Click on the images below to get more information on Nabokov's butterflies.


 * [[image:http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmP2LbLDTJXLmwIhTXqsTdbWTTXciqaAT6q-uas6jiDOmKa4c&t=1&usg=__xyywBPNgwalJ-3q6xaIQnZZ54aw= width="172" height="204" caption="Nabokov" link="http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/n/vladimir-nabokov/nabokovs-butterflies.htm"]] || [[image:http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01692/butterfly_1692737c.jpg caption="The Swallowtail Photo By: Alamay" link="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/7931179/Swallowtail-butterflies-having-a-flutter-on-the-future.html"]] || [[image:http://karnerblue.org/FemaleKarnerBlue.png width="348" height="315" caption="Female Karner Blue Photo from:http://granitegeek.org/blog/2008/07/17/karner-blue-butterfly-release-program-booms/ " link="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/endan1.htm"]] || [[image:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GHp2s2v3Mx4/S9WOJbPQXjI/AAAAAAAABEU/mbTM9hhRW20/s1600/Nabokov+Butterfly.jpg width="354" height="321" caption="Nabokov's blues" link="http://amscoextra.blogspot.com/2010/04/butterfly-man-short-storeis-of-vladimir.html"]] ||
 * [[image:http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSVfS0uG4AYlQJ4h7NLP7YZuVw_ZtBzi2cS2nDlRBS03zEyBQQ&t=1&usg=__Y_Gj4SBF5ZbTIWjCYnwJZAN9qC0= width="197" height="159" caption="Photo By James A. Fordyce http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/science/19butt.html " link="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/endan3.htm"]] || [[image:http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SqhhJb_P3Kk/S6-0pR2xENI/AAAAAAAALds/ZV7O4jBAXkE/s400/Karner+Blue.jpg caption="The Karner Blue Photo From: http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2010/03/karner-blue.html" link="http://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/kbb/kbb_fact.html"]] || [[image:http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/pic/2857_98.jpg link="http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=1842"]] || [[image:http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/images/nabokovvladimir_1.jpg caption="Nabokov" link="http://streetmaisgeek.free.fr/lys-cv/"]] ||

=**BOOKS**= by: [|Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov]; [|Brian Boyd]; [|Robert Michael Pyle] This book contains information about Nabokov’s life, novel selections, stories, poems, screenplays, criticism, lectures, articles reviews, interviews, letters, and notes and a rich array of beautiful drawings and photographs of butterflies by Nabokov.
 * [[image:http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41G8RPWM04L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg]] || =//Nabokov’s Butterflies// =

From Publishers Weekly
Admirers of the great novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) know that collecting and classifying butterflies was for him not so much a hobby as an obsession, especially during the 1940s, when he worked for Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology and made important discoveries about the American genera known as Blues. Butterfly-linked images and ideas pervade some of his fiction, and butterfly-collecting expeditions took up much of his free time. Nabokov biographer Boyd and butterfly expert Pyle team up to offer a gigantic compendium of butterfly-relevant Nabokoviana. Reprinted here are draft reminiscences later revised for the autobiography Speak, Memory; the 1920 technical paper "A Few Notes on Crimean Lepidoptera"; selected parts of the later scientific and technical work; numerous poems with butterfly-related lines, some in English, some translated from Russian; Nabokov's last short story, "The Admirable Anglewing"; excerpts from letters and interviews; notes for the New Yorker ("Incidentally, pinching the thorax is a much simpler way of dispatching a butterfly") and segments of Nabokov's lecture notes; and lepidopteran passages from the novels and stories. Among the previously unpublished works, one standout is the 36-page essay (originally in Russian) that Nabokov meant to use as the afterword to The Gift. Also present are the surviving fragments of Nabokov's never-completed descriptive catalogue, Butterflies of Europe. Boyd and Pyle contribute separate, informative and sometimes parallel introductions. Not even a Nabokov-obsessed taxonomist would want to read this collection from start to finish: it is, though, a volume devotees will delight to browse in and scholars will want to own. 30 color and 30 b&w illus. Agent, Georges Borchardt. (Apr.) FYI: For more information on Nabokov's Butterflies, see Book News, Feb. 28. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. //--This text refers to an alternate [|Hardcover] edition.//

([|WorldCat Record], [|Amazon link]) ||

by: [|Kurt Johnson]; [|Steven L Coates]
 * [[image:http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/99/78/0f15c0a398a01f878bebf110.L._AA300_.jpg]] || ==//Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius// ==

Amazon.com Review
The title //Nabokov's Blues// is sure to bewilder many: was the great author depressed? Nothing of the sort--unknown to all but the most dedicated //[|Lolita]//-philes, the great Russian author was a dedicated lepidopterist; the book, by fellow scientist Kurt Johnson and writer Steve Coates, explores his life's work with the Blue butterflies of South America. Nabokov brought the same gentle sensibility to his scientific work that he used in his writing and teaching careers, and the authors have found great new depths to the man that an army of biographers had failed to excavate. Entomology buffs will find much to love in //Nabokov's Blues//, with collecting trips into the field and anatomical detective work taking the forefront. Literati seeking new insights into the man's life will also be pleased to find his story told from a new perspective, focusing more on his exacting research than his tumultuous personal life.

Excerpt from book:

"Frankly, I never thought of letters as a career. Writing has always been for me a blend of dejection and high spirits, a torture and a pastime — but I never expected it to be a source of income. On the other hand, I have often dreamt of a long and exciting career as an obscure curator of lepidoptera in a great museum." — //Strong Opinions//

([|WorldCat Record], [|Amazon link]) || Nabokov, Vladimir. (2000, April). Father's butterflies. //The AtlanticMonthly//, //285//(4), Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/04/nabokov1.htm
 * [[image:http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/04/images/nabflowerl.jpg link="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/04/nabokov1.htm"]] || Image Retrieved from:

This article is an interesting memoir written by Nabokov about his father. ||
 * [[image:http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/04/images/mcvs2000-04.gif]] || Image retrieved from the Atlantic Monthly

Vladimir Nabokov was a distinguished lepidopterist, and butterflies dance among his writings in the form of images and metaphors and as the subject of enchanted scrutiny. We offer a treasury of unpublished work by Nabokov relating to butterflies, including "the last important unpublished fiction."

Boyd, Brian. (2000, April). Nabokov's butterflies. //The AtlanticMonthly//, //285//(4), Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/2000/04/nabokov.htm ||

Book Reviews Etc...

 * [[image:http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/25/specials/nabokov.1.jpg caption="Photos by Nabokov"]] || [|Conniff, Richard. (2000). Vlad the Impaler: An Examination of Nabokov as a Lepidopterist].

This a book review of Nabokov's Blues

"This book wonders, with palpable regret, what Vladimir Nabokov might have accomplished had he abandoned literature for lepidoptery instead of the other way around. To readers who do not share Nabokov's enchantment with butterflies, this may seem a bit like wondering what Shakespeare might have achieved as an actor if he hadn't been distracted by those pesky sonnets" (Conniff, 2000).

"Nabokov was torn between his two callings. His first  publication in English was an article titled 'A Few Notes on Crimean  Lepidoptera,' and until the end of his life he spent his summers  lepping in the mountains. He also spent six years as a professional <span style="font-family: verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">lepidopterist at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-- years he described later as the most delightful and thrilling in all my adult life (Conniff, 2000)  || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> [|Butterflies and Moths named for and by Nabokov] Zimmer, Dieter E. A guide to Nabokov's butterflies and moths. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Dieter E. Zimmer. Hamburg, D.E. Zimmer, 2001. 392 p.; col. ill.QL545.2.Z55 2 ||
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Nabokov_butterflies.jpg caption="Photo By: William H. Howe" link="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dzbutt9.htm"]] || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">This guide features butterflies and moths named by and for Nabokov:

<span style="background-position: 100% 50%; border-collapse: separate; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Arial Black',Arial,Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;"> [|MONDAY MUSING: VLADIMIR NABOKOV, LEPIDOPTERIST] ||
 * [[image:http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/images/butt49.jpg caption="Photo By: William H. Howe" link="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/dzbutt9.htm"]] || <span style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Vladimir Nabokov fell in love with butterflies at a very early age. “If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender,” writes Nabokov in an excerpt from his autobiography. Check out this link to get more information on Nabokov's musings with lepidoptery: