Playboy Wins Rights to Nabokov's Last Novella

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 10, 2009 6:55 AM CDT
Playboy Wins Rights to Nabokov's Last Novella
Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977) in Rome to work on the film screenplay of his most famous book, 'Lolita'.   (Getty Images)

The literary event of the year will be sandwiched between nudes in the pages of Playboy this fall, the Independent reports. The magazine won the rights to publish Vladimir Nabokov's final novella—which he ordered to be destroyed after his death—after its literary editor went to great lengths to win over the writers' son's agent, even sending him several shipments of flowers.

"I was very persistent, as I often am, and I try forcibly to remind people of our literary history because it is very easy for people to dismiss us," she tells the New York Observer. "I'm so glad all those orchids did not die in vain." The Original of Laura will be published in book form a week after Playboy runs it.
(More novel stories.)

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