Robert Roper

Nabokov in America: on the Road to Lolita Robert Roper

Publisher Marketing: The author of the immortal "Lolita" and "Pale Fire," born to an eminent Russian family, conjures the apotheosis of the high modernist artist: cultured, refined as European as they come. But Vladimir Nabokov, who came to America fleeing the Nazis, came to think of his time here as the richest of his life. Indeed, Nabokov was not only happiest here, but his best work flowed from his response to this exotic land. Robert Roper fills out this period in the writer's life with charm and insight covering Nabokov's critical friendship with Edmund Wilson, his time at Cornell, his role at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. But "Nabokov in America" finds its narrative heart in his serial sojourns into the wilds of the West, undertaken with his wife, Vera, and their son over more than a decade. Nabokov covered more than 200,000 miles as he indulged his other passion: butterfly collecting. Roper has mined fresh sources to bring detail to these journeys, and traces their significant influence in Nabokov's work: on two-lane highways and in late-'40s motels and cafes, we feel Lolita draw near, and understand Nabokov's seductive familiarity with the American mundane. "Nabokov in America" is also a love letter to U. S. literature, in Nabokov's broad embrace of it from Melville to the Beats. Listening to Roper, we feel anew the mountain breezes and the miles logged, the rich learning and the Romantic mind behind some of Nabokov's most beloved books." Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2015 (EAN 9780802743633, Hardcover) Library Journal 05/01/2015 pg. 72 (EAN 9780802743633, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Publishers Weekly 04/20/2015 pg. 68 (EAN 9780802743633, Hardcover) Booklist 05/01/2015 pg. 71 (EAN 9780802743633, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Roper, Robert Robert Roper has won awards for his fiction and nonfiction alike. His most recent book, Fatal Mountaineer, a biography of the American climber/philosopher, Willi Unsoeld, won the 2002 Boardman-Tasker Prize given by London's Royal Geographical Society. His works of fiction include Royo County, On Spider Creek, Mexico Days, The Trespassers, and Cuervo Tales; which was a New York Times Notable Book. He has won prizes or grants from the NEA, the Ingram-Merrill Foundation, the Joseph Henry Jackson Competition, and the British Alpine Club. His journalism appears in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Outside, Men's Journal, National Geographic, and others. He teaches writing and film at Johns Hopkins, and lives in Baltimore and northern California. Contributor Bio:  Bevine, Victor For over thirty years, Victor Bevine has worked as an actor, screenwriter, audio book narrator, director, and more. A graduate of Yale University, his acting credits include many prestigious roles onstage as well as roles in the film version of A Separate Peace and countless television shows. He has read over one hundred and eighty titles as an audiobook narrator; in 2010, he received an Audiophone Award for his narration of the Pulitzer Prize winning book The Beak of the Finch. He has written several screenplays, including Certainty, which was chosen for two prestigious writers conferences and which served as the basis for his first novel. His thirty-minute short film Desert Cross, which he wrote and directed, won accolades at the Athens International Film Festival. Currently, he serves as CEO of the World Freerunning Parkour Federation (WFPF), of which he is co-founder. He resides in New York City.