Vladimir Nabokov Brief Bio and Works

Russian-born American Novelist, Famous for Lolita

Feb 17, 2009

Brief biography and works of Vladimir Nabokov, one of 20th century's outstanding writers.

Nabokov is best known for his masterpiece, Lolita. His literary knowledge spanned many languages, and he was a scholar of lepidoptery and literature.

Early Life of Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia, into an aristocratic family. An intelligent child, he learned to speak English and French along with his native Russian. His first poems were published before he was 20 years old.

During the Russian Revolution his family lost its wealth. The family moved abroad in 1919. Nabokov studied at Cambridge University, and from 1922 until 1940 lived first in Germany and then Paris, where he met novelist James Joyce and mixed with Russian refugees. He published nine novels during these years, writing in Russian under the pen name Vladimir Serin. Although his reputation as a novelist grew, he earned little money and had to teach to survive.

Migration to the US

In 1940, Nabokov, his wife and son moved to America, where he took citizenship in 1945. His first novel in English was The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, published when he was 42. From then on he wrote all his books in English.

Nabokov taught at Cornell University from 1948 to 1059, in which he used this experience for his novel Pnin, a comic account of a Russian professor at an American university.

Lolita, a Masterpiece

When he was in his mid-50s, Nabokov published Lolita. It tells the story of a middle-aged man and his passion for his 12-year-old stepdaughter. At that time the novel's subject matter shocked many people, but its literary style and humor were praised by critics. Lolita was an instant success, claimed his masterpiece. It catapulted him to fame and finally, enabled him to devote full-time to writing. He died at the age of 78, July 2, 1977.

"I am trying to describe these things not to relive them in my present boundless misery, but to sort out the portion of hell and the portion of heaven in that strange, awful, maddening world – nymphet love."

Works by Vladimir Nabokov

Goring, Rosemary, editor. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994

McGovern, Una, editor. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002

Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993

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