Nabokov and His Beloved Blues Butterflies
Miraculously, some of Nabokov's specimens--including Blue butterflies from Moulinet--were brought with him to America. However, since most of his European collection had been stored in the basement of the apartment building in France, those precious specimens were all destroyed when the Nazis plundered the building. This was now the third collection Nabokov had lost because of political turmoil. After this devastating loss, Nabokov decided to donate most of his specimens to various institutions he was later affiliated with.
Nabokov is most widely recognized as the author of Lolita, a serious novel he wrote while serving as the Cornell University literature professor during the 1950s. Lolita was published in 1958, but this was only a small portion of his literary career. He wrote seventeen novels, poems, plays, film screenplays, and various short stories--some in Russian, some in English.
Nabokov was not only a literary genius and a renown lepidopterist, he was also an adept illustrator of butterflies. He was noted for drawing multi colored butterflies on copies of his books dedicated to his beloved wife, Vera. Some of his fanciful drawings were plausible, some preposterous, but all were exquisite! Two of Nabokov's striking illustrations are shown below with abbreviated captions as to their identity. These copyrighted illustrations and their captions were graciously provided by Ms. Sara Funke: "Courtesy of the Estate of Vladimir Nabokov."
Lolita. Translated from English by the author [Pereval S Angliiskogo Avtor] , New York: Phaedra, (1967). The dedication copy, inscribed To my Verochka /October 1967/ Montreux. . . . The dust jacket is labeled Verochka's in Russian, and he drew for her a spectacular butterfly on the front endpaper: Colias lolita Nab. (female), with the wing shape and pattern of a true female Colias, and lavender shades completely unknown in this group. At most, some northern and high mountain Sulphur butterflies tend to dusky green or grayish, but the idea of a vividly purple and blue Colias is grand indeed" (Johnson).
The Gift. Translated from the Russian by Michael Scammell with the collaboration of the author. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, (1963). First English edition, Juliar A17.3 The later of two dedication copies, inscribed to Vera in Russian on the front endpaper on their 43rd wedding anniversary: Here is the tenderest butterfly worthy of the anniversary. V. including 1925-68, the span of their marriage. With a large, elaborate pencil butterfly, meticulously colored in blue
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