Biography
Vladimir Nabokov (April 22, 1899 - July 2, 1977) was a Russian writer, famous all over the world for his novel Lolita. He was born in St. Petersburg in 1899, in an aristocratic family of powerful landowners with roots in the 14th century; his oldest ancestor was a Tartar prince. Vladimir was the first child in the family, followed by four others. He was trained by the best Russian pedagogues and was employed except his lessons, with the collection of butterflies, a hobby that would later become a profession. In his teens he also dealt with poetry, he wrote verses which were published in 1916. With the Bolsheviks prevailing in 1917 the family was forced to hide in the Crimea, and in 1919, after the White Army defeated by the Red, they left for the exterior, following the fate of many Russian aristocrats of that period.Vladimir studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College in Cambridge and in 1922 he moved to Berlin, where his father published a Russian-language newspaper. In 1938, the rise of Nazism in Germany led Vladimir, his wife Vera and their son Dmitry to Paris. The capture of France by Hitler forced them to go to America in 1940; he taught there literature in various colleges such as Stanford and Harvard. In 1955 he wrote Lolita, that made him famous and gave him financial independence. Since 1959 he has been exclusively dedicated to writing. In 1973 he was honored with the American Medal of Literature.
Nabokov moved to Switzerland in 1961, he lived in the hotel "The Montraeux Palace Hotel" until 1977 when he died in a hospital after falling on the slopes of Davos while hunting butterflies.