The New Republic

Back in 1931, a magazine called Contempo appeared in Chapel Hill, N.C. By 1934, it had disappeared, but during its brief life it baited the literary establishmentwith Conrad Aiken, Faulkner, Kay Boyle, Pound, Wallace Stevens and D. H. Lawrence. Recently, through the offices of the Kraus Reprint Corporation, a company that specializes in out-of-print periodical publishing, Contempo achieved a belated karma, along with 26 other experimental magazines that include The Dial, Laughing Horse, Little Review and Pagany. READ MORE >>

Rep. Abraham Lincoln (Whig, 111.) speaking: "When the war began, it was my opinion that all those who, because of knowing too little, or because of knowing too much, could not conscientiously approve the conduct of the President, in the beginning of it, remain silent on that point, at least till the war should be ended. . . . I think I should still adhere to it, were it not that the President and his friends will not allow it to be so. . . . Now I propose to show, that the whole of this issue is . . . the sheerest deception. . . ." READ MORE >>

Speak, Memory rehearses the major themes of Nabokov's fiction: the confrontation of death; the withstanding of exile; the search for complete consciousness and the "free world of timelessness." In the first chapter, he writes, "I have journeyed back in thought--with thought hopelessly tapering off as I went--to remote regions where I groped for some secret outlet only to discover that the prison of time is spherical and without exits." Nabokov's protagonists live in claustrophobic, cell-like rooms, and Humbert, Cincinnatus in Invitation to a Beheading (1936), and Krug in Bend Sinister (1947 READ MORE >>

Now in his sixty-seventh year, Vladimir Nabokov is suddenly upon us. Of course, he was here all along, but his oeuvre was like an iceberg, the massive body of his Russian novels, stories, plays, and poems remaining untranslated and out of sight, lurking beneath the visible peaks of Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962). In the last eight years, however, six of his books in Russian have been translated and three out of print novels reissued. READ MORE >>

DespairBy Vladimir Nabokov (Putnam, $5) READ MORE >>

Kennedy by Theodore C. Sorensen (Harper & Row; $10) READ MORE >>

The DefenseBy Vladimir Nabokov Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 READ MORE >>

Like most autobiographical works Federico Fellini's scintillating new film 8 1/2 reveals something more than its author intended. Begin with the title. It derives from the fact that, up to now, Fellini has made six full-length films and has contributed three "half" segments to anthology films. Before we step into the theater, the title tells us that he is clever, and that he sees the film as part of his personal history. It also tells us that he found himself stuck for a title.   READ MORE >>

The Gift By Vladimir Nabokov Putnam; $5.95 Mr. Nabokov's new novel is, of course, an old one. The Gift is his last Russian romance before he turned to bless us with his English, and dates from 1937. Its fame in the other language has long sounded in the ears of those of us who (unlike, say, Mr. Edmund Wilson) could not read it. Here at last it is, translated by Michael Scammell with the close cooperation of the author. READ MORE >>

Long Day’s Journey into Night (Embassy) READ MORE >>