Vladimir Nabokov(1899-1977)
- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899, the eldest
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, named Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was a liberal
political leader, the editor of a liberal newspaper, and was a friend
of Sergei Diaghilev. His mother, named Elena Ivanovna (née Rukavishnikov), was
the daughter of the wealthiest Russian goldmine owner.
Nabokov's family was trilingual. As a child he was already reading
foreign writers Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert, and the Russians Lev Tolstoy, Nikolay Gogol,
and Anton Chekhov. He excelled in languages and literature, as well, as in
soccer, tennis and chess. He was inspired by his father's studies in
lepidoptery from the age of 7, and spent summers collecting butterflies
in the family estate of Vyra, near St. Petersburg. He graduated from
the most advanced and prestigious Tenishev School in St. Petersburg,
Russia.
Nabokov's father was the Secretary of the Russian Provisional
Government, when he 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 at a political meeting while shielding
his opponent from assassins. The painful memory of his father's violent
death would echo in many of Nabokov's writings. 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 Vera Evseevna Slonim, from a
Russian-Jewish family, and their son Dimitri was born in 1934.
Traumatized by the death of his father and the loss of his home
country, Nabokov expressed himself in writing. His novel 'The Luzhin
Defence' (1930) is alluding to his own story of emigration and the
sense of loss. In 1937 his father's killer was released by Adolf Hitler, and
Nabokov had to move to Paris. Three years later he fled from the
advancing German Armies to the United States, with his wife and son. In
1940 he crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the Champlain, where he had a
first class cabin, paid with the money from the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. In
1945 Nabokov became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He
taught literature at Cornell University and worked as entomologist at
Harvard University, becoming a distinguished lepidopterist.
He published short stories in the Atlantic and the New Yorker magazines
in English, while still writing his memoirs in Russian, and agonizing
to switch from Russian to English. It took him 6 years to complete
"Lolita" (1955), a controversial story of a pedophile's desire for a
12-year-old girl, who reminds him of the little girl he loved as a boy.
The novel was banned in America and the UK until 1958. He later wrote a
screenplay for the film Lolita (1962), directed by Stanley Kubrick. Lolita and "Pale
Fire" (1962) are his best known novels. In 1964 Nabokov published his
four-volume translation of 'Eugene Onegin' by Alexander Pushkin, on which he
worked for 10 years. He later made English translations of poems by
Mikhail Lermontov and Fyodor Tyutchev. His own later works: the artfully
constructed 'Ada' (1969), 'Transparent Things' (1972), and the
autobiographic 'Look at the Harlequins' (1975), were translated into
Russian by his son Dimitri. Nabokov also published scholarly works on
Nikolay Gogol, James Joyce and Franz Kafka.
In 1960 Nabokov moved to Switzerland and made his home at the Montreux
Palace Hotel. From there he frequently traveled to Milan, Italy, where
his son Dimitri Nabokov was an opera singer at the La Scala. Nabokov's main
hobby was his immense collection of rare butterflies which grew to a
museum-quality with his many entomological expeditions. He never
learned to drive a car, and he depended on his wife Vera to drive him
around. Nabokov's individualism manifested in his ironic rejection of
any mass-psychology, especially Marxism, Freudism, etc. He never used
telephones, thus preventing any outside influence over his way of life.
He had a rare gift of synaesthesia, cognate with that of composer
Alexander Scriabin and artist Wassily Kandinsky. Nabokov also made his name in
chess by composing chess problems.
Vladimir Nabokov died on July 2, 1977, in Montreux Palace Hotel, and
was laid to rest in the Clarens Cemetery, Montreux, Switzerland. His
wife and muse, Vera Slonim, died in 1993, and was laid to rest with
Nabokov. The family mansion of Nabokov's in St. Petersburg, Russia is
now a Nabokov's Museum. His first collection of butterflies is now part
of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. His last
and most valuable butterfly collection was bequeathed to the Zoology
Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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, named Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was a liberal
political leader, the editor of a liberal newspaper, and was a friend
of Sergei Diaghilev. His mother, named Elena Ivanovna (née Rukavishnikov), was
the daughter of the wealthiest Russian goldmine owner.
Nabokov's family was trilingual. As a child he was already reading
foreign writers Edgar Allan Poe, Gustave Flaubert, and the Russians Lev Tolstoy, Nikolay Gogol,
and Anton Chekhov. He excelled in languages and literature, as well, as in
soccer, tennis and chess. He was inspired by his father's studies in
lepidoptery from the age of 7, and spent summers collecting butterflies
in the family estate of Vyra, near St. Petersburg. He graduated from
the most advanced and prestigious Tenishev School in St. Petersburg,
Russia.
Nabokov's father was the Secretary of the Russian Provisional
Government, when he 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 at a political meeting while shielding
his opponent from assassins. The painful memory of his father's violent
death would echo in many of Nabokov's writings. 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 Vera Evseevna Slonim, from a
Russian-Jewish family, and their son Dimitri was born in 1934.
Traumatized by the death of his father and the loss of his home
country, Nabokov expressed himself in writing. His novel 'The Luzhin
Defence' (1930) is alluding to his own story of emigration and the
sense of loss. In 1937 his father's killer was released by Adolf Hitler, and
Nabokov had to move to Paris. Three years later he fled from the
advancing German Armies to the United States, with his wife and son. In
1940 he crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the Champlain, where he had a
first class cabin, paid with the money from the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. In
1945 Nabokov became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He
taught literature at Cornell University and worked as entomologist at
Harvard University, becoming a distinguished lepidopterist.
He published short stories in the Atlantic and the New Yorker magazines
in English, while still writing his memoirs in Russian, and agonizing
to switch from Russian to English. It took him 6 years to complete
"Lolita" (1955), a controversial story of a pedophile's desire for a
12-year-old girl, who reminds him of the little girl he loved as a boy.
The novel was banned in America and the UK until 1958. He later wrote a
screenplay for the film Lolita (1962), directed by Stanley Kubrick. Lolita and "Pale
Fire" (1962) are his best known novels. In 1964 Nabokov published his
four-volume translation of 'Eugene Onegin' by Alexander Pushkin, on which he
worked for 10 years. He later made English translations of poems by
Mikhail Lermontov and Fyodor Tyutchev. His own later works: the artfully
constructed 'Ada' (1969), 'Transparent Things' (1972), and the
autobiographic 'Look at the Harlequins' (1975), were translated into
Russian by his son Dimitri. Nabokov also published scholarly works on
Nikolay Gogol, James Joyce and Franz Kafka.
In 1960 Nabokov moved to Switzerland and made his home at the Montreux
Palace Hotel. From there he frequently traveled to Milan, Italy, where
his son Dimitri Nabokov was an opera singer at the La Scala. Nabokov's main
hobby was his immense collection of rare butterflies which grew to a
museum-quality with his many entomological expeditions. He never
learned to drive a car, and he depended on his wife Vera to drive him
around. Nabokov's individualism manifested in his ironic rejection of
any mass-psychology, especially Marxism, Freudism, etc. He never used
telephones, thus preventing any outside influence over his way of life.
He had a rare gift of synaesthesia, cognate with that of composer
Alexander Scriabin and artist Wassily Kandinsky. Nabokov also made his name in
chess by composing chess problems.
Vladimir Nabokov died on July 2, 1977, in Montreux Palace Hotel, and
was laid to rest in the Clarens Cemetery, Montreux, Switzerland. His
wife and muse, Vera Slonim, died in 1993, and was laid to rest with
Nabokov. The family mansion of Nabokov's in St. Petersburg, Russia is
now a Nabokov's Museum. His first collection of butterflies is now part
of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. His last
and most valuable butterfly collection was bequeathed to the Zoology
Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.