NABOKOV'S DOZEN: Thirteen Stories.

First UK edition, first printing. Inscribed by the author's wife Véra Nabokov to the Danish poet and translator Uffe Harder. Original blue cloth, lettered in gilt to the spine, in the dustwrapper designed by Sheila Perry. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, the cloth and gilt sharp, the contents clean throughout, lacking marks or spotting. In the near fine dustwrapper, lightly toned but generally bright and clean and without fading. A touch rubbed to spine tips, small (c. 8 mm) closed tear to the upper edge of the front panel. Not price-clipped and correctly priced 15s net to the front flap. A beautifully preserved example with a scarce inscription from Nabokov's beloved wife, companion, first reader, and all-round aide, Véra.

Inscribed by Véra Nabokov in black ink to the front free endpaper, "Uffe / l'aidè de nuls à dés certés de / traduction / – au teléphone! – / ton ami / Véra" (roughly translatable as "Uffe / Adviser for novices in matters of translation – by telephone! – your friend, Véra"). The recipient, Uffe Harder (1930-2002), from whose library this volume derives, was a Danish poet, translator, President of Danish P.E.N., and member of the Danish Academy. He published thirteen volumes of poetry but may be best known for rendering into Danish works by (among others) Flaubert, Beckett, Borges, Claude Simon, Carlos Fuentes, and Seamus Heaney. A selection of his poems, translated into English, was issued by the Dedalus Press in 1989. Both during and after Vladimir Nabokov's death, Véra Nabokov exercised scrupulous care and control over her husband's legacy, overseeing the multitude of translations of the writings into as many languages. During a visit to "the sparkling citadel of the Montreux Palace Hotel" where Véra Nabokov lived first with and later without her husband (she outlived him by fourteen years), Martin Amis described Montreux as "a kind of clearing-house for the Nabokov light industry." Harder doesn't appear to have published any translations of Nabokov's work, and it isn't clear when Véra inscribed this copy of 'Nabokov's Dozen' to him, whether he was advising her on a forthcoming translation of this or another book (the stories, as far as we can tell, have never been issued as a collection in Danish), or indeed how they knew each another (the familiar "ton ami" suggests more than a passing acquaintance). The inscription indicates a recent consultation, by phone, on a translation-related matter, with Véra's reference to herself as a novice ("de nuls" here could mean anything from beginner to dummy) offering a nice example of her ironic wit (Nabokov, Amis notes, "used to boast that she had the best sense of humour of any woman he had ever known, and it is easy to appreciate this and other reasons for his pride."). (Martin Amis, 'Visiting Mrs Nabokov: And Other Excursions' [London, 1993]).