His family traced its roots to the 14th-century Tatar prince Nabok Murza, who entered into the service of the Tsars, and from whom the family name is derived. Nabokov was born on 22 April 1899 (10 April 1899 Old Style) in Saint Petersburg to a wealthy and prominent family of the Russian nobility. He also was an expert lepidopterist and composer of chess problems.Įarly life and education Russia Īt age 16, Nabokov inherited the Rozhdestveno estate from his maternal uncle Nabokov owned it for one year before losing it in the October Revolution. Nabokov was a seven-time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. His memoir, Speak, Memory, published in 1951, is considered among the greatest nonfiction works of the 20th century, placing eighth on Random House's ranking of 20th century works.

Nabokov's Pale Fire, published in 1962, was ranked 53rd on the same list. Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita ranked fourth on Modern Library's list of the 100 best 20th-century novels in 2007 and is considered one of the greatest 20th-century works of literature. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945 and lived mostly on the East Coast before returning to Europe in 1961, where he settled in Montreux, Switzerland.įrom 1948 to 1959, Nabokov was a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University. He achieved international acclaim and prominence after moving to the United States, where he began writing in English. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian (1926–1938) while living in Berlin, where he met his wife.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Набоков ( listen) 22 April 1899 – 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin ( Владимир Сирин), was an expatriate Russian and Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist.

Nabokov autobiography