On a summer's day in 1950, Vladimir Nabokov loaded all the notes and drafts of his half-completed novel into a box, and headed for the backyard incinerator. The story -- at this point called Kingdom by the Sea -- seemed plagued by creative problems. His teaching job at Cornell University paid the bills but left him no time to write. Most of all, even if finished, he held little hope of finding a publisher for his lurid tale of a 12 year-old "nymphet"/prisoner --at this point called Joanita Darc -- playing sex and mind-games with her middle-aged debaucher as they crisscrossed America. But Nabokov's wife knew it was more than trash: she caught him on the lawn, persuaded him to reconsider, and his Joan of Arc namesake-heroine was spared her death-by-fire ... FULL STORY »
