Gavriel Shapiro – författare

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), a writer of world renown, grew up in a culturally refined family with diverse interests. Nabokov’s father, Vladimir Dmitrievich (1870–1922), was a distinguished jurist and statesman at the turn of the twentieth century. He was also a great connoisseur and aficionado of literature, painting, theater, and music as well as a passionate butterfly collector, keen chess player, and avid athlete. This book, the first of its kind, examines Vladimir Nabokov’s life and works as impacted by his distinguished father. It demonstrates that V. D. Nabokov exerted the most fundamental influence on his son, making this examination pivotal to understanding the writer’s personality and his world perception, as well as his literary, scholarly, and athletic accomplishments. The book contains never heretofore published archival materials. It is appended with rare articles by Nabokov and his father and is accompanied by old photographs. In addition, the book constitutes a survey of sorts of Russian civilization at the turn of the twentieth century by providing a partial view of the multifaceted picture of Imperial Russia in its twilight hours. The book illumines the historical background, political struggle, juridical battles, and literary and artistic life as well as athletic activities during the epoch, rich in cultural events and fraught with sociopolitical upheavals.

Cover illustration: Vladimir Nabokov and his father, 1906. The Nabokov family photographs. Copyright © The Estate of Vladimir Nabokov, used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC; and of The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), a writer of world renown, grew up in a culturally refined family with diverse interests. Nabokov’s father, Vladimir Dmitrievich (1870–1922), was a distinguished jurist and statesman at the turn of the twentieth century. He was also a great connoisseur and aficionado of literature, painting, theater, and music as well as a passionate butterfly collector, keen chess player, and avid athlete. This book, the first of its kind, examines Vladimir Nabokov’s life and works as impacted by his distinguished father. It demonstrates that V. D. Nabokov exerted the most fundamental influence on his son, making this examination pivotal to understanding the writer’s personality and his world perception, as well as his literary, scholarly, and athletic accomplishments. The book contains never heretofore published archival materials. It is appended with rare articles by Nabokov and his father and is accompanied by old photographs. In addition, the book constitutes a survey of sorts of Russian civilization at the turn of the twentieth century by providing a partial view of the multifaceted picture of Imperial Russia in its twilight hours. The book illumines the historical background, political struggle, juridical battles, and literary and artistic life as well as athletic activities during the epoch, rich in cultural events and fraught with sociopolitical upheavals.Cover illustration: Vladimir Nabokov and his father, 1906. The Nabokov family photographs. Copyright © The Estate of Vladimir Nabokov, used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC; and of The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Vladimir Nabokov taught at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959. It was at Cornell that Nabokov composed Lolita and Pnin and conceived Pale Fire. During his Cornell tenure Nabokov also continued his research on lepidoptera, wrote the English and Russian versions of his autobiography, Conclusive Evidence and Drugie Berega, and prepared annotated translations of two pinnacles of Russian literature: The Song of Igor's Campaign and Eugene Onegin. While at Cornell Nabokov also delivered his highly acclaimed lectures on Russian and West European literature. Nabokov at Cornell contains twenty-five chapters by the leading experts on Nabokov. Their subjects range widely from Nabokov's poetry to his prose, from his original fiction to translation and literary scholarship, from literature to visual art, and from the humanities to natural science. The book concludes with a reminiscence of the family's life in Ithaca by Nabokov's son, Dmitri.

This book first delves into the author’s ancestry, thereby providing a partial slice of Russian Jewish history. It then offers an individual perspective on what it meant to grow up in the Soviet Union in the aftermath of WWII. It also gives a personal account of the rise and development of Jewish national awareness. It next describes a struggle for the immigration to Israel in the late 1960s and the early 1970s through job loss, persecution, arrests, imprisonment, and trial. It further relates the author’s life in Israel, including his work at the Voice of Israel, study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and service in the Israel Defense Forces. Finally, it explores the author’s academic career in the United States, from the graduate school at the University of Illinois to professorship at Cornell University.

This book first delves into the author’s ancestry, thereby providing a partial slice of Russian Jewish history. It then offers an individual perspective on what it meant to grow up in the Soviet Union in the aftermath of WWII. It also gives a personal account of the rise and development of Jewish national awareness. It next describes a struggle for the immigration to Israel in the late 1960s and the early 1970s through job loss, persecution, arrests, imprisonment, and trial. It further relates the author’s life in Israel, including his work at the Voice of Israel, study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and service in the Israel Defense Forces. Finally, it explores the author’s academic career in the United States, from the graduate school at the University of Illinois to professorship at Cornell University.

Thanksgiving All Year Round describes Gavriel Shapiro's eventful life, which spans over seventy years, in three different countries and on as many continents.This book first delves into Shapiro's  ancestry, thereby providing a partial slice of Russian Jewish history and offers an individual perspective on what it meant to grow up in the Soviet Union in the aftermath of WWII. Thanksgiving All Year Round also gives a personal account of the rise and development of Jewish national awareness and describes a struggle for the immigration to Israel in the late 1960s and the early 1970s through job loss, persecution, arrests, imprisonment, and trial. further, it relates the author’s life in Israel, including his work at the Voice of Israel, study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and service in the Israel Defense Forces. Finally, it explores the author’s academic career in the United States, from the graduate school at the University of Illinois to professorship at Cornell University.

Exploring Vladimir Nabokov’s Creative Universe offers a fresh perspective on certain aspects of Nabokov’s creative universe. The analysis begins with the writer’s faith, viewed as the bedrock of his ethics. Consequently, all other themes discussed in Part I, from moral dilemmas to cruelty to animals, emanate from this source and intertwine into a unique moral system. A moralist but not a moralizer, Nabokov encouraged his readers, with whom he conducts a creative dialogue, to form their own opinions and to accept moral responsibility for their actions. While the themes studied in Part I reflect Nabokov’s unique moral code, the devices examined in Part II, from chromesthesia and iconicity to upside-down, highlight the writer’s desire to present a novel outlook on the surrounding world. Thus, Nabokov’s use of heretofore unexplored conceit showcases his extraordinary imaginative prowess, by dint of which he strives to surprise and to engage his readers more intensely. Furthermore, by forging highly intricate and astounding connections between different spheres of experience and knowledge, Nabokov motivated his audience to think outside the box and to make their own meaningful and unforgettable discoveries.