By Antonello Guerrera, (
La Reppublica
)
“Dear Mr. Nabokov, I regret to inform you that your poem has not been selected for publication in the
New Yorker
.
In our opinion, few readers would understand this.
And then yes, there is this problem halfway through the poem which you yourself mentioned in your letter….
But don't worry, we value you very much, and your English is extraordinarily good.
See you soon.
"
Signed Charles Pearce.
It is 1942, and this man, who is none other than the co-founder of the publishing house Duell, Sloan and Pearce, but above all the head of the poetry section of
New Yorker
magazine
, has just allowed himself to refuse a poem. by Vladimir Nabokov.
This poem is
The Man of Tomorrow's Lament
, or The Lament of the Man of Tomorrow.
The protagonist is a superhero, the most famous of all at the time, namely Superman, alias Clark Kent, but he presents himself in a new light, tormented by the dilemmas of the present and
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