But the reason I'm writing is to send you this amazing excerpt from a mid-60s interview with Vladimir Nabokov, in which he anticipates the emoticon by a good 20 years:
Q: How do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of the immediate past?
Nabokov: I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile – some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.
