Marshall Thompson led the search: Camden Courier-Post, March 23, 1950, p. I.
only six months before he’d abducted Sally: Mitchell Cohen’s court statement, April 2, 1950.
The year 1948 was a pivotal one: This chapter largely draws upon VNAY, pp. 129–135, as well as letters reprinted in Nabokov, Selected Letters: 1940–1977.
Nabokov had also traveled: Itemized road trip summaries available at “Lolita, USA,” compiled by Dieter E. Zimmer, http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/LolitaUSA/LoUSNab.htm.
“lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country”: Lolita, p. 176.
“Beyond the tilled plain”: Ibid., p. 152.
marriage to Véra was once again stable: VNAY, p. 129.
had been ilclass="underline" Letter from Vladimir Nabokov to Katharine White, May 30, 1948.
“quiet summer in green surroundings”: VNAY, p. 131.
“wrinkled-dwarf Cambridge flatlet”: Ibid.
“ends with a feeling of hopelessness”: Ibid.
Nabokov appreciated Wilson’s gift: Letter from Vladimir Nabokov to Edmund Wilson, June 10, 1948, Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov-Wilson Letters, 1940–1971, ed. Simon Karlinsky, p. 178.
“I was always interested in psychology”: Field, VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov, p. 212.
Her legal name: Sally Horner’s birth certificate, issued by the State of New Jersey Department of Health, April 18, 1937, obtained from the Department of Health office in May 2017.
When the subject came up: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, August 2014, and again in July 2017.
William Ralph Swain: Susan Panaro’s birth certificate listing Swain as her father, State of New Jersey Department of Health, No vember 1926, obtained from the Department of Health office in May 2017.
One subject they all fretted about: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, July 2016.
That’s where Ella met Russell Horner: Asbury Park Press, December 9, 1935, p. 9, and June 9, 1936, p. 7.
As for Russell Junior: Social Security application, February 1937.
Susan remembered the beatings: Interviews with Al Panaro and Diana Chiemingo, August 2014.
She took Susan and Sally to Camden: Camden telephone directory, 1946.
Russell became itinerant: Interview with Al Panaro, 2014.
He lost his driver’s license: “‘Short Cut’ Costs Autoist License,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 27, 1942, p. 27.
By the beginning of 1943: Asbury Park Press, March 26, 1943, p. 2.
Later, when it became necessary: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. I.
Her mother, Susannah: Obituary for Susannah Goff, Trenton Times, October 31, 1939; obituary for Job Goff, Asbury Park Press, January 12, 1943.
Susan, by now sixteen: Interview with Diana Chiemingo, July 2016; interview with Al Panaro, August 2014.
she and Al wed in Florence: Marriage certificate, NJSA.
Robert and Jean Pfeffer: Philadelphia Inquirer, March 24, 1950, p. 3.
At first Marshall Thompson worked: Joseph S. Wells, “Sleuth Closes Books on Tireless Search,” Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 9.
He had been promoted to detective: “Marshall Thompson,” DVRBS.com, http://www.dvrbs.com/people/CamdenPeopleMarsliallThompson.htm, accessed January 16, 2018.
“local pugilists”: Camden Courier-Post, January 2, 1928.
His musical ability was called out: Camden Courier-Post, November 3, 1939.
“quantity of sugar and cream”: Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. 9.
“Of the nineteen fictions”: Martin Amis, “Divine Levity,” Times Literary Supplement, December 23, 2011.
suggested a more likely culprit: Roper, Nabokov in America, p. 150.
“an ape in the Jardin des Plantes”: Nabokov, “On a Book Entitled Lolita,” Anchor Review, 1957 (subsequently reprinted in the Putnam edition of Lolita and every edition since).
Nabokov supplementing his writing income: Beam, The Feud, p. 16.
The short story includes: “A Nursery Tale,” reprinted in The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, pp. 161–172.
features the so-called demonic effect: “Lilith,” Poems and Problems (McGraw-Hill, 1969), reprinted in Selected Poems (Knopf, 2012), p. 84.
A paragraph in Dar: Nabokov, The Gift, pp. 176–177.
When Germany declared war: VNAY, p. 13.
“laid up with a severe attack”: Nabokov, “On a Book Entitled Lolita.”
“How can I come to terms”: Nabokov, The Enchanter, p. I.
“comparable to the one afforded”: Simon Karlinsky, “Nabokov’s Life and Lolita’s Death,” Washington Post, December 14, 1986.
As he later explained: Interview with Nabokov by Alfred Appel, Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature 8 (1967).
Henry Lanz was a Stanford professor: VNAY, p. 33; Roper, Nabokov in America, p. 140.
Nabokov, however, denied it: Field, Nabokov: His Life in Part, p. 235.
A likely birth date: La Salle’s age was reported variably between fifty-two and fifty-six in 1950; his death certificate lists his birth date as May 27, 1896, and his Social Security application in 1944 lists May 27, 1895.
Frank Patterson and Nora LaPlante: Names listed on 1943 prison intake form, NJSA. Different parental names, as well as hometowns, appeared on La Salle’s Social Security application.
He said he served… prison has no record: Prison intake form, 1943; conversations with Greg Bognich, archivist, National Archives, Kansas City, KS.
every time he changed aliases: “Police Record of Girl’s Abductor,” Camden Courier-Post, March 22, 1950, p. I.
It is as Fogg that a sharper picture: News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), August 3, 1937, p. 24.
He met her at a carnivaclass="underline" Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1937, p. 3.
Which they did: Cecil County marriage license of Dorothy May Dare and Frank La Salle, July 31, 1937, obtained from the Maryland State Archives.
Dorothy’s father… was livid: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1937, p. 2.
“He told me the truth”: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 1937.
The next morning, La Salle appeared: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1937.
La Salle was fined fifty dollars: Philadelphia Inquirer, August 12, 1937, p. 2.
arrested La Salle on bigamy charges: Camden Courier-Post, March 22,1950, p. I.
Dorothy sued Frank for desertion: Ibid.
Three Camden police officers: Camden Courier-Post, March 25, 1950, p. 6.
The five girls: Names taken from Dorothy Dare’s divorce petition against Frank La Salle, La Salle v. La Salle, Superior Court of New Jersey, 151-246-W127-796 (1944).
Sergeant Wilkie swore out a warrant: Camden Courier-Post, March 25,1950, p. 6.