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Vladimir Nabokov

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  Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 23, 1899. His family was very wealthy. His father, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was a politician and his mother, Elena Ivanovna was of a wealthy Russian heritage. Vladimir was the oldest of five children living on the family estate, Vyra.

  Nabokov had a happy and active childhood. He learned to speak English, French, and Russian at an early age. His gift with languages helped him tremendously as a writer later in life. Vladimir played tennis, soccer, and spent a great deal of time collecting butterflies. He was taught by tutors for the beginning of his education. he also enjoyed painting and drawing. In 1911 Nabokov entered the Tenishev School, the most prestigous school in Russia. Vladimir tended to be a loner, even playing goalie on the school soccer team.

 In November 1917, the Nabokov family moved to a friend's estate near Yalta because of rioting. Vladimir's father took a job in the provisional government but was imprisoned by Bolsheviks, and released to return to his family. Vladimir spent his time collecting butterflies, research he would later publish in The Entomologist in 1923. The family moved again to England, and Vladimir was enrolled in Cambridge. He graduated easily in 1922. He spent much of his time writing poetry in English, and completing a Russian translation of Alice in Wonderland. The family moved once again to settle in Berlin, where Vladimir's father became the editor of the newspaper Rul'. In 1922, he was killed by two right wing assasins in the line of fire during another assasination. His wife moved to Prague where she lived the rest ofher life.

 Nabokov stayed in Berlin because of the large Russian population. He earned money by publishing short stories and poetry, under the name Vl. Sirin to avoid exposure because of his father's death. He also gave English and tennis lessons, translated,acted, and created the first Russian crossword puzzles. Nabokov wrote mostly at night; he was an insomniac. He kept up an active social life by day, and on April 15th, 1925, he married Vera Slonim. They had a son, Dmitri, on May 10th, 1934.

 Vladimir began to write novels in Russian. His work was well recieved, but did not make much money and was not popular outside of the Russian culture. In 1937 he moved his family to Paris in flight of the Nazis. Here Nabokov continued to write in Russian, a little in French, and also his first English novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. He enjoyed writing in English, and prepared his family to immigrate to America.

  In 1940 the Nabokov family fled for Paris, escaping the Nazis. In American Vladimir took a job at the Museum of Natural History in New York, classifying butterflies. In the summer of 1941 he taught creative writing at Stanfor University, and then secured a place as a resident lecturer in comparitive literature and Russian at Wellesley College. He later worked at Harvard, and at Cornell as a professor from 1948-1958. In 1945 the family became American citizens. Also that year, Nabokov published his memoirs as Conclusive Evidence.

 Nabokov continued to hunt butterflies during the summers. It wss during these trips that he wrote the novel that made him famous, Lolita. At first no American publishing houses would sponsor Lolita because of its subject matter; a man's affair with his twelve year-old stepdaughter. Finally Olympia Press in France in 1955, and many were outraged by its immoral message. There were also many who supported it artistically. It was published in America in 1958, and in England the next year. It spent six months as the number one best seller in America.

  Profits from the sales of Lolita were so high that Vladimir was able to quit his job at Cornell and devote himself to writing. In 1961 He and Vera moved to Montreux, Switzerland, to be near Dmitri who was studying opera. The move was meant to be temporary, but they ended up living out the rest of their lives there. Nabokov continued writing novels including Pale Fire, and directed the translation of his Russian works into English. Vladimir sometimes collaborated with Dmitri and revised some of his earlier works. His gift for languages never left him, and he mastered his beautiful technique of writing in all the languages he knew.

 Vladimir Nabokov died on July 2, 1977 in Motreux from a mysterious lung problem. His legacy of dizzying and dazziling literature continues to inspire scholars, critics, and students alike.

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