Timeline Vladimir Nabokov

The life of Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977), Russian émigré, butterfly expert and master stylist, who wrote in Russian and English and became famous with Lolita and Pale Fire.

All

Person

Event

Conflicts

Disaster / crisis

Science

Culture

Companies

Countries

Dashed left edge = started before this timeline · Dashed right edge = still ongoing

Vladimir Nabokov 14

1899 Vladimir Nabokov born in Saint Petersburg Vladimir Nabokov is born into a wealthy aristocratic family and grows up speaking Russian, English and French.
1919 Nabokov flees Russia After the revolution the Nabokovs leave Crimea for good. Vladimir studies at Trinity College, Cambridge.
1922 Nabokov's father killed in Berlin Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov is shot dead in Berlin while shielding a speaker from monarchist assassins.
1925 Nabokov marries Véra Slonim Vladimir Nabokov marries Véra Slonim in Berlin. She becomes his editor, typist and lifelong partner.
1926 Nabokov publishes his first novel Writing as V. Sirin, Vladimir Nabokov publishes Mashenka (Mary), the first of nine Russian novels.
1940 Nabokov emigrates to the United States Vladimir Nabokov, Véra and their son escape France for New York weeks before the German invasion.
1941 Nabokov's first English novel Vladimir Nabokov publishes The Real Life of Sebastian Knight and starts teaching at Wellesley College.
1942 Nabokov studies butterflies at Harvard Vladimir Nabokov becomes curator of butterflies at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology.
1948 Nabokov becomes a professor at Cornell Vladimir Nabokov teaches European and Russian literature at Cornell for ten years.
1955 Nabokov's Lolita published in Paris After American publishers refuse it, Vladimir Nabokov's novel appears with the Olympia Press in Paris.
1958 Nabokov's Lolita published in America Lolita becomes a bestseller in the United States, the first book since Gone with the Wind to sell 100,000 copies in three weeks.
1961 Nabokov moves to Montreux Wealthy from Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov settles in the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland.
1962 Nabokov publishes Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov's novel, told as a poem with commentary, appears.
1977 Vladimir Nabokov dies in Lausanne Vladimir Nabokov dies in a Lausanne hospital, near his Montreux home, leaving The Original of Laura unfinished.