Vladimir Nabokov and the lepidopterists' society: a centenary tribute

摘要

In 1998, lepidopterists suddenly began learning that 1999 would be the year the literary world would celebrate the Centenary of Vladimir Nabokov. The "Vladimir Nabokov" familiar among lepidopterists as the meticulous, Harvard-based, lycaenid taxonomist of the 1940's who named a number of "Blue" butterflies, would possibly be acclaimed the greatest writer of the 20th Century. With the millennium approaching and intelligentsia of the Arts looking backward, Nabokov's name was being juggled, along with Ireland's James Joyce and France's Marcel Proust, as prime candidate for the laurel of greatest writer of the age.