Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1899, where his father was assassinated and things got crazy. Eventually Nabokov went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and then moved to Berlin and Paris, the two cities where he launched his literary career. In 1940, Nabokov came to the United States and began writing in English (his first nine novels were in Russian) and he quickly became revered as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. He taught at Wellesley and Cornell primarily, although he also lectured at Harvard, until publishing Lolita in 1955, which was so successful Nabokov was able to retire from teaching and focus on writing and his other hobbies.

Recognized as one of the greatest prose writers of all time, and certainly in recent history, his impact is notable throughout much of modern literature and he taught several notable literary figures.

Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland in 1977.