A beautifully rendered art-book boxed set with Shade/Nabokov’s 999-line poem in a set of “original” index cards in Shade’s handwriting with cross-outs and other edits, dated from July 2, 1959 to July 21, 1959, the lines numbered for easy reference. The poem is also contained in a beautifully illustrated small booklet, with Vanessa Atalanta’s drawings, colored by Jean Holabird, who is credited with the idea of the art book. Finally, a pamphlet containing two critical articles by Brian Boyd, Nabokov’s biographer and R.S. Gwynn, who references Donald Hall-Yvor Winters in his piece. A beautiful piece of handicraft, the poem is the centerpiece for Nabokov’s 1962 book, Pale Fire and is written in heroic couplets. It tells the story of Shade (1898-1959); the poet’s courtship and marriage to Sybil, his poetic career at Wordsmith College in New Wye, the life and death by suicide of his only child Hazel, his sojourn at IPH and his notion of an afterlife. A rather stunning and confusing achievement.