Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius

Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books, 1999 Book. As New. Hardcover. First Edition. Large 8vo. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. xii, 372 pp, preface and acknowledgments, Part I. The Aurelian; Part II. The Searchers; Part III. Nabokov's Blues; afterword, a glossary of binomial and commonNabokovian butterfly names, Nabokov's scientific publications on Blue butterflies, principal academic publications completing Nabokos's work on neotropical Blues, general bibliography. index with b&w illustrations. First Edition, 2000. "Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) had no formal training in biology, but during the 1940s he was an acknowledged expert on "Blues," a family of butterflies that inhabit some of the remotest parts of Latin and South America. In 1945 he published a radical new classification of Blues, a paper that initially caused a stir in the rarified field of lepidoptery. However, it was fifty years before scientists followed up on his pioneering work. Part biography and part detective story, Nabokov's Blues explores the rich and varied place butterflies hold in Nabokov's fiction, as well as far-reaching questions of biogeography and evolution, and the worldwide crisis of ecology and biodiversity." Not Price Clipped. Pristine, no wear. Clean, tight and strong binding with no underlining, highlighting or marginalia. White half-cloth with dark blue paper-covered boards, and glossy blue lettering to spine..