page_title: Vladimir Nabokov
section_title: Life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Vladimir Nabokov / Life and career
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Дмитрий Николаевич Набоков, сенатор, министр юстиции.
context_page_description: Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator and entomologist. Born in Russia, he wrote his first nine novels in Russian. After 15 years in Berlin, he achieved international prominence after moving to the United States, where he began writing in English and also taught in college. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945. He and his wife returned to Europe, settling in Montreux, Switzerland in 1961.
  Nabokov's Lolita was ranked fourth in the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels in 2007; Pale Fire was ranked 53rd on the same list; and his memoir, Speak, Memory, was listed eighth on publisher Random House's list of the 20th century's greatest nonfiction. He was a seven-time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.
  Nabokov was also an expert lepidopterist and composer of chess problems.
caption: The author's grandfather Dmitry Nabokov, Justice Minister under Tsar Alexander II.
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