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Dmitri Nabokov 1, Dying Wish 0

  • John Madera

    • Vladimir Nabokov made his wife promise to burn his unfinished last novel, The Original of Laura, upon his death. But the manuscript, written on 138 index cards, remained in a Swiss safe-deposit box for over three decades. His son and sole heir, Dmitri, 75, has finally decided to let the world have a look. Knopf will publish The Original of Laura on November 17.

    Dmitri and Vladimir

    Other writers’ deathbed requests & their upshots…

    Virgil:  Burn the Aeneid. (Emperor Augustus refused.)
    Charles Dickens:  Remember me by my work alone; no statues or monuments. (Not the humblest cove in Britain.)
    Emily Dickinson:  Burn all my papers. (Her sister, Vinnie, destroyed her letters but not her poems.)
    Franz Kafka:  Burn all my unpublished works. (His friend Max Brod did not comply.)
    Hunter S. Thompson:  Fire my ashes from a giant cannon. (Johnny Depp lit the match.)

    • John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024) and Nomad Science (Spuyten Duyvil Press, forthcoming in 2026).  His  fiction is also published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, Hobart, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His poetry is also published in elimae, Sixth Finch, Contrapuntos, and elsewhere. His criticism is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, two-time New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, where he runs Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.

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