New Draft Pages: Speak, Memory

Persevering on to the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Conclusive Evidence / Speak, Memory / Другие берега [Drugie berega / Other shores], Nabokov’s “systematically correlated assemblage of personal recollections” from his early consciousness in imperial Russia in the first years of the twentieth century through to what he imagined was his son’s own early consciousness in warring Europe in 1940, has been published in four forms: the original in English in 1951; the translation/transformation into Russian in 1954; the revision in English in 1967; and, the revised and appended version in English in 1999.

It was originally published as Conclusive Evidence by Harper in 1951, as Speak, Memory by Gollancz in 1951 in Britain, as Другие берега [Drugie berega / Other shores] by Chekhov in 1954 in New York, and Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Putnam in 1967. It is A26 in the 1986 bibliography.

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  1. James’s avatar

    Not sure what you make of the copy below, which has the wraparound band of A26.2b but otherwise seems to be A26.2a:
    https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30585126706&searchurl=n%3D200000169%26bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Doff%26sortby%3D1%26an%3Dnabokov%252C%2Bvladimir%26recentlyadded%3D21day&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title2
    Perhaps the band has come from another copy at some point, but perhaps not.

    Reply

    1. admin’s avatar

      James, I’m finally getting around to responding to your post. That copy of A26.2, Speak, Memory published by Gollancz in 1951 appears to be a variant of issue a. The only difference is that it has the “Daily Mail BOOK OF THE MONTH” wrap-around band, but not exactly the same one as on issue b. This band does not have the words “SPEAK MEMORY” on the far right. The concoction may be a kind of transition variant between issue a and issue b. Who knows what went on in the bindery.

      Thanks for noticing this posting and sending me the link.

      Reply

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