An Auckland academic says he feels “pretty icky” to have his name connected to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after the disgraced financier offered to fund a book he hoped to write.
Former University of Auckland professor Brian Boyd is considered a world-leading scholar on Russian and American writer Vladimir Nabokov, and had for many years planned to write a book on his 1955 novel Lolita.
The controversial and widely-acclaimed novel was reportedly one of Epstein’s obsessions.
The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Humbert Humbert, is a poet who becomes obsessed with 12-year-old girl Lolita.
But Boyd noted Epstein did not know Lolita was the subject of the book he wanted to write when he offered him funding.
Boyd told the Herald the discussions about funding “fizzled out” and he never ended up writing the book, though it was still at the top of his “wishlist” of books to write.
He had not known about Epstein’s background when the pair first met and his involvement with him was relatively fleeting.
Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage girls. His death was ruled a suicide.
Emails between the two have been released in the latest dump of documents from the US Justice Department.
“You suggested a while back we should work out the details of the money transfer,” Boyd wrote in the email, dated July 2012.
“Can we go back over things, first? When you asked me how long I would need to write the book on Lolita that’s the top of my wishlist, I said a year,” he said.
“You asked me how much money would that take. Being naturally antigrabbity, I said $50k ... you promptly said that’s not enough and counter-proposed $75k.”
The email traversed issues of pay a bit further and included Boyd’s bank details, which were redacted.
A copy of the email was released this weekend, but Boyd said he hadn’t been aware of its existence until he was contacted by media.
When asked by the Herald how he felt about his name being connected to Epstein, he said “pretty icky”.
Boyd, a Distinguished Professor of English, had crossed paths with Epstein after being invited to speak at the Centre for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University.
The programme received millions of dollars in funding from Epstein and was closed in 2021 after the links were discovered.
Boyd said he had been introduced to Epstein after speaking at the centre.
“I did have a breakfast with Epstein. That was where he made the offer of funding my next book.
“He said I would like to sponsor you to write the next book that you really want to write.”
Boyd, who has written multiple books on Nabokov, said he wanted to write about Lolita.
He told the Herald his other books about Nabokov’s English-language novels had surprised people by “discovering depths in them that nobody had suspected” and that he believed he could do the same with Lolita.
He was particularly interested in the “metaphysical layers” of the novel that had not been explored.
But the offer for funding never eventuated, with Boyd receiving money from the Marsden Fund to work on another book.
In the subsequent years, Boyd “started to hear more about Epstein”.
“This was a long time before it really hit the fan ... I was not at all interested in pursuing it either way.”
Now the brief connection had been publicised in the Epstein files, Boyd said he wished somebody else had sponsored the Harvard programme he was involved in. “It’s awful,” he said.
On reflection, Boyd said Epstein seemed “psychopathic” in many of his behaviours and traits.
“He seemed very assured, very charming. He had monied contacts and intellectual contacts all over the place in Harvard.”
Boyd also remembered an academic board he was on that issued a statement after images released from the Epstein files showed text from Lolita written on a person’s body.
The board’s statement noted the exploitation and complicity revealed in Epstein’s actions and those around him was exactly like that described in Lolita.
“He is exactly the type of villain Nabokov gave the world eyes to see,” the board said.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.