Vladimir Nabokov: 1899-1977

Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899, the oldest of five children in a wealthy aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia. His grandfather was a Justice Minister to the Czar Alexander II. His father was a liberal political leader and the editor of a liberal newspaper. His mother was the daughter of the wealthiest Russian goldmine owner.

As a child he was already reading foreign writers Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert, and the Russians Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, and Anton Chekhov. He excelled in languages and literature, as well, as in soccer, tennis and chess.

When Nabokov's father was arrested during the Russian revolution of October, 1917, and the family estate was confiscated by the communists. The Nabokov family emigrated to London and then to Berlin. There Nabokov's father was murdered.

In 1923 Nabokov graduated with honors from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied zoology and literature. He worked as a translator and tutor in Europe for 18 years. In 1925 he married.

In 1937 he move to Paris. Three years later he fled from the advancing German Armies to the United States, with his wife and son. In 1945 Nabokov became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He taught literature at Cornell University.

In 1960 Nabokov moved to Switzerland and made his home at the Montreux Palace Hotel.

Vladimir Nabokov died on July 2, 1977 and was laid to rest in the Clarens Cemetery, Montreux, Switzerland.