Nabokov, Vladimir

THE REAL LIFE OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT [Signed]

Norfolk, CN: New Directions, 1941. First Limited Edition, First Printing, One of 1500. Octavo, 205 pages. In Very Good minus condition with a Good plus condition dust jacket. Tan spine with black lettering. Dust jacket is wrapped in a mylar covering, price is uncut "$2.50", has mild shelving wear, small open tears along the extremities, stains throughout, and moderate age-toning throughout. Boards are bound in knitted red cloth, have mild wear along the edges, mild age-toning along the edges, and light fraying along the spine head edge. Textblock has light soiling on few pages, stains on the end-pages and pastedowns, a "Rogerdow" bookplate on the front pastedown, pen dating on the front pastedown, mild wear along the edges, and moderate age-toning along the edges. Inscription on the front end-page reading "For [embossed name] Roger Dow with kindest regards From V. Nabokov", dated "1942". Limited edition, one of 1500. DL consignment. Shelved in Case 2.

1392290

Shelved Dupont Bookstore

Price: $10,000

NOTES

Review copy with publisher's publication stamp on the front end-page, one of 1500 copies. Inscribed to Roger Dow, a scholar of Russian history and author of "Prostor a Geopolitical Study of Russia and the United States", a piece published in the first volume of the "Russian Review", itself an academic journal dedicated to the study of the history and culture of the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Vladimir Nabokov was born April 22, 1899 in Saint Petersburg in the former Russian Empire to a wealthy noble family. Nabokov began his literary career in Berlin where his family settled after the October Revolution, writing his first nine novels in Russian between 1926 and 1937 under the name V. Sirin. After fleeing Berlin and Europe as a whole, Nabokov would settle in Manhattan in 1940. It would be in the USA that Nabokov would produce his first english-language novel, "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight". "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight" was published in 1941 after three years of work. Being the first novel Nabokov published both in English and under his own name, it sold slowly. However, with the immense success of Lolita in 1958, "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight" would be reprinted in 1959 to great critical and commercial acclaim.