Book

Fine lines : Vladimir Nabokov's scientific art / edited by Stephen H. Blackwell & Kurt Johnson.

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2016]

©2016

xiv, 318 pages : illustrations (some color), color map ; 26 cm

This volume reproduces 154 of Russian-American novelist and entomologist Vladimir Nabokov's drawings, few of which have ever been seen in public, and presents essays by ten leading scientists and Nabokov scholars. The contributors underscore the significance of Nabokov's drawings as scientific documents, evaluate his visionary contributions to evolutionary biology and systematics, and offer insights into his unique artistic perception and creativity. Showcasing color drawings of butterflies' distinctive markings and anatomy as well, all as part of his work at the American Museum of Natural History and Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977 -- Knowledge -- Lepidopterology.

Butterflies -- Pictorial works.

Butterflies -- Anatomy -- Pictorial works.

Zoological illustration.

Butterflies -- Classification.

Illustrated works.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977, artist.

Blackwell, Stephen H. (Stephen Hardwick), 1965- editor.

Johnson, Kurt, editor.

Vladimir Nabokov's scientific art

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-304) and index.

Anatomical diagrams -- Introduction -- Black and white figures -- Color plates -- Essays. Drawing with words : the toothwort white and related natural history motifs in Pale fire / Robert Dirig -- A few notes on Nabokov's childhood entomology / Victor Fet -- Chance, nature's practical jokes, and the "non-utilitarian delights" of butterfly mimicry / Victoria N. Alexander -- Nabokov's evolution / James Mallet -- Fictional realism : scaling the twin peaks of art and science / Dorion Sagan -- Mountains of detail : on the trail with Nabokov's blues / Lauren K. Lucas, Matthew L. Forister, James A. Fordyce, and Chris C. Nice -- Nabokov's morphology : an experiment in appropriated terminology / Stephen H. Blackwell -- Swift and underwing, boulderfield and bog : how Nabokov drew the world from its details / Robert Michael Pyle -- Enchanted hunting : Lolita and Lolita, Diana and diana / Brian Boyd -- Nabokov's notes and labels from the Museum of Comparative Zoology : boon for a recondite biographer or data for a serious systematist? / Naomi E. Pierce, Rodney Eastwood, Roger Vila, Andrew Berry, and Thomas Dai -- Chronology of Nabokov's life.

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

2015951601

9780300194555

0300194552

920017517

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0

1

929747

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595.789 Fine lin