Box 1

Written from Craigie Circle, Cambridge MA, in French, concerning translation, publication, and cinema rights for Laughter in the Dark, Invitation to a Beheading, and The Defense, as well as money owed VN by various sources. Lightly annotated.

Written from Columbine Lodge, Estes Park, CO, in French, concerning the contract for the French translation and publication of Gogol, with brief mention of contract negotiations involving Invitation, The Defense, and VN's short stories.

Written from Craigie Circle, Cambridge MA, in French, inquiring after the status of contract negotiations for the French publication of Gogol, The Defense, and Invitation, and requesting an additional copy of a newly translated short story after the first copy had apparently been lost in the mail.

Written from 802 E. Seneca Street, Ithaca NY, in French, concerning a contract with Albin Michel, informing Ergaz of the Nabokovs' summer plans and the resultant need for the contract to be signed by June 20, as well as thanking Ergaz for her efforts on behalf of Sebastian Knight.

Written from 802 E. Seneca Street, Ithaca NY, in French, concerning changes to a contract (probably Sebastian Knight), and specifying summer addresses.

Addressed from 802 E. Seneca Street, Ithaca NY, but apparently written from Salt Lake City, in French, referring to 2 copies of a contract signed by VN and by the American editor of Sebastian Knight, James Laughlin of New Directions, enclosed with the letter.

Written from 802 E. Seneca Street, Ithaca NY, in French, opening with a series of questions about the publication status of Sebastian Knight, then asking Ergaz to obtain for VN two copies of The Defense ("par moi"), and informing Ergaz that a book of memoirs (Conclusive Evidence/Speak, Memory) is to be published by Harper the following spring.

Written from 802 E. Seneca Street, Ithaca NY, in French, expressing "despair" over the first six chapters of a translation by Davet, who, VN claims, while possessed of good intentions and an intelligent way of reading, does not comprehend English, and employs a cliché-ridden French. He asks Ergaz for her thoughts on this matter, and insists that he must be allowed to correct the proofs. He mentions again the upcoming publication of his memoirs.

An anxious letter, written from 802 E. Seneca Street, Ithaca NY, in French, concerning the whereabouts of the manuscript translation of Invitation, and Ergaz's reception of his letter regarding the Sebastian Knight translation, both of which things VN has just heard about from Mme. Davet.