Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich (1899–1977)

US writer. He left his native Russia in 1917 and began writing in English in the 1940s. His most widely known book is Lolita (1955), the story of the middle-aged Humbert Humbert's infatuation with a precocious girl of 12. His other books, remarkable for their word play and ingenious plots, include Laughter in the Dark (1938), The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1945), Pnin (1957), and his memoirs Speak, Memory (1947).

Born in St Petersburg, Nabokov settled in the USA in 1940, and became a US citizen in 1945. He was professor of Russian literature at Cornell University 1948–59, producing a translation and commentary on Pushkin's Eugene Onegin (1963). He was also a lepidopterist (a collector of butterflies and moths), a theme used in his book Pale Fire (1962).