Books News

Hefner buys rights to Nabokov's The Original of Laura

By April MacIntyre Jul 10, 2009, 4:01 GMT

Hugh Hefner and Playboy have acquired the first serial rights to "The Original of Laura," the late Vladimir Nabokov\'s final, unfinished work. © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

Hugh Hefner and Playboy have acquired the first serial rights to "The Original of Laura," the late Vladimir Nabokov's final, unfinished work.

Publisher Knopf purchased the right for an undisclosed sum from the Nabokov estate, led by Vladimir's son Dmitri Nabokov, who went against his father's dying demands to keep 'Laura' under wraps.

Andrew Wylie, literary agent to Nabokov, struck a deal with Playboy’s literary editor - as the Playboy camp were reportedly deeply interested in Nabokov's unfinished posthumous writings.

Amy Grace Lloyd, Playboy’s literary editor told the Wall Street Journal, “I try forcibly to remind people of our literary history because it is very easy for people to dismiss us.”

Playboy excerpted Nabokov’s novel “Ada” in 1969.

Nabokov devotees will be able to read the 5,000-word passage in the December issue,  which comes out on November 10.

Playboy launched as a men's magazine in 1953 by Hugh Hefner. The magazine has a penchant for publishing short stories by such novelists as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming and Margaret Atwood.