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Florence Sally Horner

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Florence Sally Horner
Studio portrait of Florence Sally Horner sitting on a swing.
Undated photograph of Florence Sally Horner
Born(1937-04-18)April 18, 1937
DiedAugust 18, 1952(1952-08-18) (aged 15)
Woodbine, New Jersey
Known forKidnapping victim

Florence Sally Horner (April 18, 1937 – August 18, 1952) was a girl abducted by serial child molester Frank La Salle in 1948. It is possible that Vladimir Nabokov drew on the details of her case in writing his novel Lolita.

Abduction

In March 1948, 10-year-old Horner attempted to steal a five-cent notebook from a Woolworths in Camden, New Jersey. Frank La Salle, a 50-year-old mechanic, caught her stealing, told her that he was an FBI agent, and threatened to have her sent to a reform school unless she reported to him periodically.

In June 1948, he abducted Horner.[1] La Salle instructed her to tell her mother he was the father of two of her school friends and she had been invited on their family vacation to the Jersey Shore. He spent 21 months traveling with her in different U.S. states. According to charges later brought against La Salle, it was during this period that he raped her repeatedly. While attending school in Dallas, Texas, Horner confided her secret to a friend. Later she escaped from La Salle, and phoned her sister at home, asking her to send the FBI. When arrested on March 22, 1950, in San Jose, California, La Salle claimed that he was Horner's father. However, authorities in New Jersey confirmed that Horner's real father had died seven years previously. La Salle was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 30 to 35 years in prison under the Mann Act.[2]

Death

Horner died in a car accident near Woodbine, New Jersey, on August 18, 1952.[3] As the Associated Press reported on August 20, 1952: "Florence Sally Horner, a 15-year-old Camden, N.J., girl who spent 21 months as the captive of a middle-aged morals offender a few years ago, was killed in a highway accident when the car in which she was riding plowed into the rear of a parked truck."[4]

Cultural references

Critic Alexander Dolinin proposed in 2005 that Frank La Salle and Florence Sally Horner were the real life prototypes of Humbert Humbert and Dolores "Lolita" Haze from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.[5] Sarah Weinman's book The Real Lolita also alleges that Horner's ordeal inspired Lolita.[6][7] Although Nabokov had already used the same basic idea—that of a child molester and his victim booking into a hotel as father and daughter—in his then unpublished 1939 work Volshebnik (Волшебник),[8] it is still possible that he drew on the details of the Horner case in writing Lolita. An English translation of Volshebnik was published in 1985 as The Enchanter.[9] Nabokov explicitly mentions the Horner case in Chapter 33, Part II of Lolita: "Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?"

See also

Further reading

  • Weinman, Sarah (11 September 2018). Murray, Brian; Restivo-Alessi, Chantal; Nevins, Larry; Bunrham, Jonathan (eds.). The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World. New York City, New York, United States of America: Harper Collins. ISBN 9780062661920. OCLC 1129542049. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Google Books.
  • Greenwood, Tammy (7 August 2018). Witte, George (ed.). Rust & Stardust: A novel. New York City, New York, United States of America: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781250164193. LCCN 2018001891. OCLC 1056491849. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Google Books.

References

  1. ^ Dolinin, Alexander (9 September 2005). Stothard, Peter (ed.). "What Happened to Sally Horner?: A Real-Life Source of Nabokov's Lolita". The Times Literary Supplement (TLS). 103 (5377). London, United Kingdom of Great Britain: The Times Literary Supplement Limited (News UK/News Corp): 11–12. ISSN 0307-661X.
  2. ^ Machen, Ernest (27 November 1998). Mount, Ferdinand (ed.). "Sources of inspiration for 'Lolita'". The Times Literary Supplement The Times Literary Supplement (TLS). 96 (4991). London, United Kingdom of Great Britain: The Times Literary Supplement Limited (News UK/News Corp): 17. ISSN 0307-661X.
  3. ^ Weinman, Sarah (September 6, 2018). Haskell, David (ed.). "The Last Days of the Real Lolita: What happened after Sally Horner, whose story helped inspire the novel, returned home". The Cut. New York City, New York, United States of America: Vox Media Network (Vox Media, LLC.). Archived from the original on 6 September 2018.
  4. ^ Dolinin, Alexander (9 September 2005). Edmunds, Jeff H.; Brockman, William S.; Hamilton, John (eds.). "What Happened to Sally Horner?: A Real-Life Source of Nabokov's Lolita (expanded article with newspaper articles from TLS)". Zembla. Penn State University Park: University Libraries of the Pennsylvania State University. Archived from the original on 24 December 2005. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  5. ^ Dowell, Ben (10 September 2005). "1940s sex kidnap inspired Lolita". The Sunday Times. London: The Times Newspapers Limited. ISSN 0956-1382. OCLC 605140119. Archived from the original on 21 September 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via The Nabokovian (International Vladimir Nabokov Society).
  6. ^ McAlpin, Heller (11 September 2018). Lansing, John (ed.). "'The Real Lolita' Investigates The True Crime Story Of Sally Horner". NPR. Washington, D.C., United States of America: National Public Radio Inc. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018.
  7. ^ Waldman, Katy (17 September 2018). Haskell, David (ed.). "The Salacious Non-Mystery of "The Real Lolita"". The New Yorker. New York City, New York, United States of America: Vox Media Network (Vox Media, LLC.). ISSN 0028-792X. OCLC 320541675. Archived from the original on 17 September 2018.
  8. ^ Nabokov, Vladimir (1991). Nabokov, Dmitri (ed.). Volshebnik Волшебник [The Enchanter] (in Russian). Translated by Dmitri Nabokov (1st ed.). Moscow, Russia.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Nabokov, Vladimir (1 July 1991). Nabokov, Dmitri (ed.). The Enchanter. Translated by Dmitri Nabokov (1st ed.). New York City, New York, United States of America: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780679728863. LCCN 90055704. OCLC 22957141. Retrieved 5 August 2021 – via Internet Archive.
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