In 1958 Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, “Lolita” was published in America; it quickly became one of the most controversial books of the 20th century. Despite its critical acclaim, the Albany Public Library banned “Lolita” (although no one in the library system appears to have read it before making that decision). Lolita quickly became a runaway best-seller and was rushed into paperback print.
When Stanley Kubrick’s movie adaptation of “Lolita” was released in 1962 its Albany reception was a tad more temperate. The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, arbiter of Albany morality, did not ban it, but did condemn its “depravity” (because the National Catholic League of Decency had censored the film during production it was really pretty tepid). Back in the day, Catholic churches in Albany posted a list of the verboten movies in their vestibules; in 1962 “Lolita” topped the list. (Ironically, the list was a guide to “must see” movies for some.) THEN some eagle eyes thought they spotted Albany and Rensselaer locations in the film (the gothic spires of the D&H Building, Memorial Hospital). There was huge buzz and Albany residents flocked (in broad daylight) to the Hellman movie theatre on Washington Ave where “Lolita” had its first Albany run.
But the Nabokov connection with Albany extends beyond “Lolita”.
Flash forward to 1975 when the New York Times used an illustration of the Karner Blue butterfly in an article that featured endangered species of flora and fauna. In response, Nabokov wrote to the editor:
“By a nice coincidence, the so-called Karner Blue illustrating Bayard Webster’s note on insects needing protection is a butterfly I classified myself. It is known as Lycaeides melissa samuelis Nabokov or more properly Lycaeides samuelis Nabokov (I considered it at first to be a race of the western melissa Edwards, but have concluded recently that it is a distinct species).…..It is a very local butterfly attached to extensive growths of lupine, in isolated colonies, from Michigan (probably its original habitat) to Albany, N.Y. Readers of my fiction may have found it settled on damp sand in a vacational scene of my novel PNIN. “
Vladimir Nabokov was an inveterate lepidopterist. His fascination with butterflies started as a young child in Russia, and continued after his emigration to the U.S. A New York Times article by Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson ( July 14, 2000) ) explained:
“While Nabokov was writing in the 1940’s, he also studied the anatomy of butterflies at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Among the butterflies he examined were some old specimens collected in the 19th century from Karner, N.Y., a bygone village in an area known as the Albany Pine Bush. Although he identified the Karner blue as a distinct subspecies in 1943 and named it Lycaeides melissa samuelis, it wasn’t until the late spring of 1950 (when he was teaching at Cornell) that Nabokov took up his net and went looking for Karner blues in the wild. Before leaving he wrote to a friend, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, that he planned to drive to ”a place called Karner, where in some pine barrens, on lupines, a little blue butterfly I have described and named ought to be out.”
“In 1950, while driving from Boston to Ithaca, he visited the Pine Bush for the first time. The day after his visit, he wrote Wilson again saying that he had driven ‘to a certain place between Albany and Schenectady where, on a pine-scrub waste, near absolutely marvelous patches of lupines in bloom, I took a few specimens of my samuelis.’ ” (In 1950 the Karner blue was the most abundant insect in the Pine Bush.)
In 1975, many concerned local citizens were afraid the Pine Bush (and the Karner blue) would be destroyed by development. In 1973 the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation had already set aside about 450 acres of the Pine Bush for protection, calling it the Pine Bush Unique Area, but destruction of huge swathes of the home of the Karner Blue continued. In 1978 a grassroots organization called “Save the Pine Bush” was formed to fight the encroachment. Today the Pine Bush Preserve Commission protects and manages 3,200 acres. While the Karner Blue is still endangered, by all accounts Nabokov beautiful blue butterfly is returning to the Pine Bush and is “on the brink of survival”.
Nabokov’s Karner Blue has been called the “poster bug for the Pine Bush” and Nabokov the “Godfather of the Endangered Species Act”. It’s pretty clear that if he hadn’t written that shockingly smutty novel that appalled the civilized world, including Albany, and made him so famous that the world paid attention to him, we might not have the Karner Blue.
*IMDB lists 4 Albany locations for “Lolita”; I only know of 3. The D&H building is clearly visible from Rensselaer, Memorial Hospital plays a minor role, and there is a scene that features what is probably an Arbor Hill street – I have yet to find the fourth.. Some say Albany doubles as “Parkington” a fictional city in “Lolita”. (Although most of the movie was filmed in England, second unit directors took Humbert’s car on the road filming American streetscapes.)
Copyright 2021 Julie O’Connor
Friends of Albany History 