Nabokov, Vladimir 1899-1977
US novelist

Born in St Petersburg, Russia, to aristocratic parents, he was educated at the relatively progressive Tenishev School, where he was accused of 'not conforming' to his surroundings. In 1919, following the Bolshevik Revolution, his family became �migr�s, and he and his brother went to England to study, on scholarships to Cambridge. He then rejoined his family in Berlin (1922), where he lived for more than 15 years and published his first novels, among them Korol, Dama, Valet (1928, 'King, Queen, Knave') and Otchayanie (1936, 'Despair'). All were written in Russian, under the pseudonym V Sirin, the author himself later collaborating on English translations. From 1937 to 1940 he was in Paris, where he met James Joyce, and he then emigrated to the USA where he took citizenship in 1945. He taught at Wellesley College and Cornell University, and earned distinction as a lepidopterist. He began to write in English and published many short stories and novels, including Bend Sinister (1947) and Pale Fire (1962). Lolita (1959) was a succ�s de scandale and allowed him to abandon teaching and devote himself to writing full-time. From 1959 he lived in Montreux in Switzerland. Among 20th-century novelists he is regarded for his linguistic ingenuity and dazzling intellect. His other works include Lectures on Literature (1980) and a translation of Alexander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (1963).

Bibliography: A Field, Vladimir Nabokov, the life and art (1977)