I have vivid memories of two extraordinary people I "knew" who were directly associated with the publication of books banned for obscenity: Vladimir Nabokov and Pascal Covici.
Vladimir Nabokov was my Russian Literature and Comparative Literature teacher at college. During the summer of my sophomore year "Lolita" was published. It was banned in the USA, but friends who were fortunate enough to go to Paris that summer returned with suitcases full of English paperback copies. I regret that I was too much of a
Pascal Covici became most famous as John Steinbeck's editor and friend. I met him and his wife Dorothy at a party at their Manhattan apartment, invited by my good friend Michael, Dorothy's nephew. Later, when Mrs. Covici had become a widow, Michael and I introduced her to my widowed mother, and as we had hoped, the two widows became good buddies. It was then that Mrs. Covici told us all about her honeymoon with Pascal. They were married in Chicago, and for their wedding trip they took a train from Chicago to New York, carrying smuggled copies of "Ulysses" as evidence for the judge(s) to read in the famous trial. At the time, and to this day, I can think of no honeymoon more exciting and romantic than that.
6 comments:
Heh. You and my wife have a lot in common as far as your love of books go. Indeed the banned books list in America is a total joke. Not only is everything under the sun on there but the books themselves are taught in schools.
The Lumpy
Wow. You've meet some interesting folks! Lucky you.
I'm with you on the subject of banned books.
Ditto what TLP said.
Welcome, Lesser Lumpkin. Be careful about those "jokes" though. They can turn ugly when too many of the Wrong People are in power.
TLP, Fred - I have been lucky. And I'm still meeting interesting folks, but who knows who among them(you) will be famous 20 years down the road?
Wow! Neato!
I'm totally nonplussed. Nabokov was your Russian Lit professor???? Wow! And yeah, that's quite a honeymoon. Mine pales in comparison.
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