An archive of Nabokov letters, drawings, and off-prints from the 1940s relating to his entomological work and correspondence with Kansas lepidopterist Donald B. Stallings was sold at auction by PBA Galleries to a West coast dealer on 7 February.

The lot was estimated to go for $10,000–$15,000. It sold for $15,600 plus a 20% buyer’s premium. Included were:

• A 7-page autograph letter signed by Nabokov (in ink) to Kansas lepidopterist Donald B. Stallings, on the letterhead of Harvard College’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, dated March 10, 1944. The letter gives extensive details of Nabokov’s Lycaeides research.
• A 6-page typed list of Lycaeides specimens sent to Nabokov by Stallings and J.B. Turner. On the last page of this list, Nabokov  has written, in pencil, a 12-line note regarding the list, and signed the note.
• 4 pages, in pen, of drawings by Nabokov, of Lycaeides morphology, notably genitalia.
• A 1-page autograph letter signed by Nabokov, undated, on the letterhead of Harvard College’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, to Donald B. Stallings. The letter notes that Stallings has cleared up a research question for Nabokov, and lists issues of the journal PSYCHE in which Nabokov has published his research.
• Reprints of Nabokov’s Lycaeides research articles in PSYCHE, vol. L, #’s 3-4; vol. LI, #’s 3-4; vol. LII, nos. 1-2; and in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. 101, no. 4. Each of these four reprints is inscribed by Nabokov to Stallings in ink, one with a small drawing of a butterfly. There are Nabokov’s pen corrections in two of the reprints, of which two corrections are extensive. 
• A manila mailing envelope addressed by Nabokov  to Stallings and with Nabokov’s return address of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. The envelope is stamped and the cancellation is dated March 13, 1944.
• A 1-page reprint from vol. 14, nos. 1 & 2 of the Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, concerning Donald B. Stallings’ research on Kansas Lepidoptera

Details and photos are at www.pbagalleries.com.