Andrew Wylie signs Nabokov deal

Literary agent Andrew Wylie (pictured), AKA 'The Jackal', has sealed a deal for the rights of the literary estate of the late Vladimir Nabokov. Wylie's coup is timely: in April, the writer's son, Dmitri Nabokov, finally gave the green light to publish his father's final, unfinished novel, The Original of Laura, the cause of much excitement among Nabokov fans.

The terms on which Wylie secured the rights to the estate (it includes the never-out-of-print Lolita), is unclear. Since 1986, the estate has been controlled by New Jersey-based US agency Smith-Skolnik Literary Management who, when contacted by the New York Observer, refused to comment.

The manuscript of the book consists of 138 index cards - Nabokov wrote all of his first drafts on cards each containing about 150 words. Before his death in 1977, Nabokov instructed his wife and son to destroy the cards because the book was unfinished, but after anguishing for some 15 years, Dimitri decided to go ahead and published regardless.