The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship

In 1940 Edmund Wilson was the undisputed big dog of American letters. Vladimir Nabokov was a near-penniless Russian exile seeking asylum in the States. Wilson became a mentor to Nabokov, and their intimate friendship blossomed over a shared interest in all things Russian. But then came Lolita, and suddenly Nabokov was the big (and very rich) dog. Finally the feud erupted in full when Nabokov published his hugely footnoted and virtually unreadable literal translation of Pushkin’s famously untranslatable verse novel Eugene Onegin. Wilson attacked his friend’s translation with hammer and tong in The New York Review of Books. Back and forth the increasingly aggressive letters volleyed until their friendship was reduced to ashes by the narcissism of small differences.