[NPPF] Nabokov On The Poem, 'Pale Fire'

[s~Z]

"Nabokov had been turning over various seeds of Pale Fire as early as 1939,
but the form it was finally to take did not crystallize until 1960. When he
submitted the poem, originally called "The Brink," to Esquire in 1961, he
told editor Rust Hills that it was "racy and tricky, and unpleasant, and
bizarre." (Esquire rejected the piece, as the magazine never published
poetry.)"
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/epo/nabokov/fswitz.htm

Main Entry: brink
Pronunciation: 'bri[ng]k
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse brekka
slope; akin to Middle Dutch brink grassland
Date: 13th century
1 : EDGE; especially : the edge at the top of a steep place
2 : a bank especially of a river
3 : the point of onset : VERGE <on the brink of war>
4 : the threshold of danger