Dangerous Minds pal and Nabokov afficiando supreme John Bertram was dissatisfied with the historial examples of Lolita cover art and is sponsoring a Lolita book cover design contest. He writes:

After perusing Dieter Zimmer?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s exhaustive online exhibit, Covering Lolita,  I am disappointed, as interesting as the various depictions of Lolita are, by how very few correspond thematically to the novel. Nabokov?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s work is masterful in its clarity and overflows with powerful and finely-wrought imagery and yet so few of the covers attempt to capture any of this richness, and many of them are merely absurd, or banal or a laughable combination of both. There are, as is to be expected, the Balthus and Balthus-like images, not to mention other examples of fine art maidens drafted to portray poor Lolita, and there is of course a panoply of expected lollipops, Sue Lyon—and to a lesser extent Dominique Swain—photos,  body parts (lips, legs, breasts), short white socks, saddle shoes, Mary Janes, short skirts, an endless parade of hairstyles, and the too-old Lolitas and the too-young Lolitas. Then there are the butterflies, and the images of the author, and an entire universe of typefaces. 

So Venus febriculosa is holding a Lolita book cover competition. The winning entry will receive $350.

Henry Lanz, Stanford professor, Nabokov’s colleague and chess partner who “married the 14-year-old daughter of a friend.” Was he Humbert Humbert?

Over the chessboard, Lanz confided a dark secret that Nabokov told biographer Field: the memorably dapper professor led a double life. On weekends, he drove to the country to participate in orgies with ?¢‚Ǩ?ìnymphets.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù He forced his wife to dress as a child.

The Lolita Question by Cynthia Haven

Via John Bertram