Lolita by Nabokov Vladimir, Signed (8 results)

SIGNED first edition - Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. ) A portrait of Vladimir Nabokov told through the lens of the years he spent in America - where he and Vera arrived in 1943, fleeing the Nazis. Roper discusses Nabokov's friendship with Edmund Wilson, his time at Cornell, but focuses on the journeys - 200,000 miles of them - which he took in the West, with his wife, Vera, and son Dmitri, in search of butterflies - on the two-lane highways and the roadside motels that he brings to life in Lolita. SIGNED on the title page. Photographs/ Bibliography, notes. 333 pp. Near fine in illustrated wrappers (toning to edges of textblock).

SIGNED first edition - Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. ) A portrait of Vladimir Nabokov told through the lens of the years he spent in America - where he and Vera arrived in 1943, fleeing the Nazis. Roper discusses Nabokov's friendship with Edmund Wilson, his time at Cornell, but focuses on the journeys - 200,000 miles of them - which he took in the West, with his wife, Vera, and son Dmitri, in search of butterflies - on the two-lane highways and the roadside motels that he brings to life in Lolita. SIGNED on the title page. Photographs/ Bibliography, notes. 333 pp. Fine in illustrated wrappers.

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Signed by Author(s).

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition, First Printing SIGNED by Vladimir Nabokov on a typed letter by Nabokov laid into the book. A fabulous copy of this TRUE FRIST EDITION with the 900 Francs price printed on the rear panels of both volumes that was later changed to 1200 francs on later editions. This two volume set is in excellent shape with minor wear to the spine and edges. Both Vol 1 and Vol 2 are complete with clean pages. There is NO writing, marks or bookplates in either book. A wonderful copy SIGNED by the author. Signed by Author(s).

First Edition, First Printing. Signed by actress Sue Lyon in red ink on a card affixed to the front flyleaf. Lyon starred at age 14 in Stanley KubrickÕs film adaptation of Vladimir NabokovÕs novel. Sue Lyon appeared in such films as John FordÕs 7 Women, Night of the Iguana with Richard Burton, The Flim-Flam Man with George C. Scott, Evel Knievel with George Hamilton, etc. Having retired from films in 1980, Sue LyonÕs autograph is very uncommon. This books prints NabokovÕs own screenplay for the film which in many ways is quite different than the finished film. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

First edition, early impression of Nabokov's lyrical masterwork. Octavo, original half cloth. Signed by Vladimir Nabokov on the half-title page with an additional drawing of a butterfly. An accomplished lepidopterist, Nabokov only included butterfly drawings in books presented to those especially important to him. Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket. Author photograph by Maclean Damcron. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Rare and desirable signed. "Brilliant. One of the funniest and one of the saddest books that will be published this year" (New York Times). "Lolita blazes with a perversity of a most original kind, for Mr. Nabokov has distilled from his shocking material hundred-proof intellectual farce. Lolita seems an assertion of the power of the comic spirit to wrest delight and truth from the most outlandish materials. It is one of the funniest serious novels I have ever read; and the vision of its abominable hero, who never deludes or excuses himself, brings into grotesque relief the cant, the vulgarity, and the hypocritical conventions that pervade the human comedy" (Atlantic Monthly). The novel was adapted into the 1962 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring James Mason and Peter Sellers.

Paris, The Olympia Press, (1955). 2 volumes. Original green printed wrappers with slight wear along the edges. Hinges and capitals with slight paper loss. Apart from the edgewear and monir loss of paper, both volumes are fresh, tight, square, and clean, also internally. First edition, first issue (with "Francs : 900" to back wrappers) of this magnum opus of 20th century literature, which, with its innovative style and highly controversial subject matter caused an upright scandal when it appeared. The work had been turned down by six publishing houses, before it was finally printed, anticipating how it would be received by the public. In 1955, Nabokov finally signed a contract with Olympia Press in Paris. By the Sunday Express editor it was called "the filthiest book I have ever read" and "sheer unrestrained pornography"" the Home Office in Great Britain instructed British Customs to seize all copies entering the country, and in 1956 the book was banned in France. The various translations of the work into other languages caused a number of other scandals, but in spite of American officials being anxious about the appearance of the first American edition, this was issued without problems (in 1958) and became an instant bestseller. In fact, it sold more than 100.000 copies within the first three weeks (being the first book after "Gone With the Wind" to do so).Today, the book is considered a classic of modern literature and one of the finest novels of the 20th century.

First Edition. First Printing. Octavo (22cm); black cloth, with titles stamped in gilt on spine and in blind to front cover; dustjacket; xiv,213,[1]pp. Inscribed by Nabokov on the half-title page to his agent, Irving Lazar, and his wife Mary, incorporating a drawing of five colored butterflies: "For Irving and Mary / from Vladimir Nabokov / with his best / Montreux / early May 1974." Gentle sunning to spine ends and upper board edges, discreet repair to gutter between front endpaper and half-title page, with two small scuffs to lower edge of front board; Very Good+ or better. In a supplied dustjacket, unclipped (priced $7.95), lightly edgeworn and a little dust-soiled, with a few tiny tears, and faint discoloration along upper edge of front flap on verso; Very Good+. Housed in a custom clamshell case. A monumental association copy of Nabokov's own adaptation for the film version of his 1955 novel. The recipient, Irving Paul Lazar (1907-1933), was a legendary talent agent and dealmaker who represented both the Hollywood elite, and a stable of authors that included Nabokov, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Larry McMurtry, William Saroyan, and others. In July of 1959, Nabokov was approached by Stanley Kubrick and James Harris, who had acquired the film rights to Lolita, to write the screenplay. Over the next year, he painstakingly wrote and re-wrote the screenplay until delivering his 400pp draft to Kubrick and Harris in the summer of 1960. "At one point, Kubrick told Nabokov that the screenplay was "much too unwieldy, contained too many unnecessary episodes, and would take about seven hours to run." Nabokov put the screenplay on a crash diet and submitted his final version on 8-Sep-1960. Harris and Kubrick called it the best screenplay ever written in Hollywood" (see Juliar A45). In his foreword to this volume, Nabokov concurs that Kubrick was a talented director, and that his Lolita was a first-rate film, but felt that he only used "ragged odds and ends" of his intended version, which "certainly made the picture as unfaithful to the original script as an American poet's translation from Rimbaud or Pasternak.My first reaction to the picture was a mixture of aggravation, regret, and reluctant pleasure.I keenly regretted the waste of my time while admiring Kubrick's fortitude in enduring for six months the evolution and infliction of a useless product" (p.xiii). The film was released to great acclaim in 1962, with Nabokov nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. It was largely through Lazar's tireless efforts over the next decade that Nabokov was finally able to publish his own version of the screenplay, successfully securing a release from Kubrick in 1972. As a token of his affection for Lazar, Nabokov gifted him a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses in 1966 (similar to the pair Sue Lyon wore in the film), which became part of the centennial exhibition Nabokov Under Glass, held at NYPL in 1999. Nabokov was generally hesitant to inscribe books, and this hesitance was magnified after the raging success of Lolita. Presentation copies of Lolita: A Screenplay are uncommon, with no copies found in the auction record, and the only copy known to us being the dedication copy, inscribed to his wife Vera. Juliar A45.1.