VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH NABOKOV was born on 23 April 1899, in St Petersburg, Russia, the elder son of an aristocratic, cultured, politically liberal family. As a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Cambridge. Between 1923 and 1940, he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language. In 1940 he, his wife and son moved to America, where he taught at Wellesley, Harvard and Cornell. His best-known novel, Lolita, brought him worldwide fame. In 1973 he was awarded the American National Medal for Literature. He died in 1977 in Montreux, Switzerland.
