Auction Date:2012 Feb 15 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
DS, fifteen pages, 8.5 x 11, September 16, 1970. Agreement between Nabokov “(the ‘Author’)” and “Norman Twain c/o Fitelson & Mayers…(hereinafter referred to as ‘Producer’)…and G. P. Putnam’s Sons…c/o Irving P. Lazar…(hereinafter referred to as the ‘Owner’),” regarding Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, “(hereinafter called the ‘Work’),” in which the author “grants to the Producer the sole and exclusive right to cause a dramatic-musical adaptation (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Play’) to be written based upon and utilizing the said Work, and to produce the Play, or cause same to be produced, on the regular speaking stage throughout the world,” signed at the conclusion by Nabokov, Twain, and the owner of G. P. Putnman’s Sons, with Nabokov also initialing each page. In very good condition, with light creasing, an erased pencil notation to the top right corner, a staple to the top left corner, a faint paperclip impression to the top edge of the first page, and one loose page.
Upon its publication, Lolita became an instant sensation. In the US, it was into a third printing within days, selling 100,000 copies in its first three weeks. Scores of producers tried to get rights to produce their version of this work and Nabokov turned them down steadfastly saying that to make a real twelve-year-old girl play the part, particularly on stage night after night, "would be sinful and immoral." In 1970 he recanted upon the condition that the adaptation be done by John Bery and Alan Jay Lerner, stating that "Mr. Lerner is a most talented and excellent classicist. If you have to make a musical version of Lolita, he is the one to do it." Here is the agreement that lead to the musical that generated almost as much public backlash as the book itself.
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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