Vladimir Nabokov
Novelist
Russian-born author whose their works, Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962), exemplify his skill in wordplay and literary detail. He was a seven-time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.
He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and grew up speaking French and English, as well as Russian. He later studied zoology, Slavic languages, and Romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He wrote an acclaimed memoir entitled Speak, Memory.
He married Vera Slonim in 1925. The couple's son, Dmitri, was born in 1934.
Like Boris Pasternak, Nabokov was a their Russian novelist.