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5 / Life After Nabokov Strange: I am constantly haunted by the realization ofa threefold deficiency-love of women, ... material success, ... significant scholarly achievement. . .. Only three more years left until I retire, and how many more years to live, I don't know.... One thing is clear: I am totally alone. No one cares how I feel. Marc Szeftel Nabokov ended Pnin with a picture of the protagonist's little sedan "spurt[ing] up the shining road, which one could make out narrowing to a thread of gold in the soft mist where hill after hill made beauty of distance, and where there was simply no saying what miracle might happen" (Pnin, 191). Here the roads of Pnin and Szeftel definitely diverged, for when Szeftel moved to Seattle, where he would live out the rest ofhis life, he found mists and hills aplenty, but very little of gold and miracles. As with his 1945 offer from Cornell, Szeftel in 1961 was not the University of Washington's first choice among top Russian historians. One member of the history department, Donald W. Treadgold, a prominent Russian historian and, at the time, editor of the Slavic Review, originally wanted the search committee to offer the position to Gustave Alef, Szeftel's one-time student, who was teaching in neighboring Oregon.' At least one of Treadgold 's colleagues, Scott Lytle, was for one reason or another, opposed to Alefs candidacy, and, as a compromise, the department decided to go with Oswald Prentiss Backus of the University of Kansas. After a long deliberation , however, Backus declined the offer, so the department found itself having to act lest it be forced to postpone the hiring till the following year.2 On March 29, 1961, Treadgold wrote to George Vernadsky, the medievalist at Yale who had worked with Szeftel on La Geste Du Prince Igor', explaining the situation to him: "Unhappily, as I am sure you know, Backus finally decided to refuse our offer.... We are still, naturally, seeking to fill the post. Rather unexpectedly the name of Marc Szeftel has entered the picture. He is 59, which would give him ten or eleven years with us, ifhis health holds out, before retirement. I ask if we may ... impose on you to write us a brief evaluation of his scholarly competence and character."3 74 LIFE AFTER NABOKOV 75 On April 9, W. Stull Holt, Acting Executive Officer of the Department of History at the University ofWashington, got an informal letter from classics professor Harry Caplan, Szeftel's colleague at Cornell, with a warm recommendation . "I. Good men in the field of early Russian history are extremely rare in this country. 2. I have read some of his work, which to me seems sound and solid. 3. He knows thoroughly the Slavic languages and French, as well as other languages of Europe. 4. He is pleasant, mentally alive, good company, comes in occasionally for a visit. 5. Enjoys a good reputation as a cooperative colleague.... Gates and Marcham praise him highly to me. 6. He is serious, learned, he prizes his dignity, and expects considerate treatment . 7. As a teacher, he is hard-working, competent, expects his students to master thoroughly the basic facts."4 Szeftel came for a campus visit during the last week of April. On May 9, 1961, he got a letter, signed by Holt and George E. Taylor, Director ofthe Far Eastern and Russian Institute, officially offering him the job. According to Kitty Szeftel and Gardner Clark, Szeftel merely intended to use the offer to get a substantial raise from Cornell. With that in mind, he went to see Knight Biggerstaff, who was his chair at the time. Much to Szeftel's astonishment , Biggerstaff congratulated him, shook his hand, and wished him the best ofluck at the new place.5 Having his "bluff" backfire on him, Szeftel had little choice but to accept the offer from the University of Washington, which he did on May 306 (only one day before Backus called Treadgold at seven in the morning to say that he had reconsidered his decision and was ready to accept the offer)) More than thirty years later, Biggerstaff still thinks it was the right decision and is rather blunt about why the department at Cornell decided to let Szeftel go: "We thought we could do better." Biggerstaff also remembers that George Taylor "chided" him in later years "for selling Szeftel to them."8 "You will have much in Seattle to be grateful...

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