Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899 – 1977) was a Russian-American novelist of great renown. He was born to a wealthy family in St. Petersburg, Russia, who then relocated to the U.S.A. in the wake of the Russian revolution.

After graduating with top honors from Cambridge University, he began writing under the pseudonym, Vladimir Sirin for the Russian press in Berlin, where he lived between 1923 and 1937. Then he moved to France and finally to the U.S. Where he became a citizen five years later.

While in America, Nabokov first worked as an entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Then he went on to join the staff at Wellesley College in 1941. They created a position for him of Resident Lecturer in Comparative Literature. He was the founder of the Russian Department in Wellesley. Nabokov was also an expert lepidopterist, a butterfly collector.

He achieved minor success with his writing until his novel, "Lolita" was published in France in 1955. It was an instant hit throughout Europe and then achieved equal fame in America in 1958. Nabokov went on to write more, including "Pale Fire", "Invitation to a Beheading", and "Glory". His work is hailed as uniquely "tragicomedies". They are just short of being parodies, but held back by seriousness.

He, his wife and children all have the ability to feel a sensation produced by one sense into a sensation produced by another. Example: smelling a certain scent produces visualization of a certain color. Otherwise known as "synesthesia".

Nabokov settled in Switzerland for the last few years of his life, where he lived in virtual obscurity, considering his fame. He was practically reclusive in his last days.