Writing in three languages (French, Russian and English) and on three continents, Vladimir Nabokov (below) enjoyed a career spanning more than 50 years. His body of work is a testament to the power of memory triumphing over both loss and emigration. In this seminar, the director of The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library, 

NYPL, Berg Collection

Rodney Phillips, and writer Sarah Funke explore Nabokov's public life and career through his surviving manuscripts, notes, lectures and photographs.

Born to a wealthy and prominent family in St. Petersburg in 1899, Nabokov developed a love of poetry, a passion for butterflies and a fascination with and mastery of languages in his childhood, and these life-long interests would all figure prominently in his prolific body of work. Exiled from his homeland when he was 20, Nabokov continued to write many stories and novels in his mother tongue. Decades later, he translated much of this work into English, often in collaboration with his son Dmitri. In 1940, he left the tumultuous political climate of Europe, hoping to make a name for himself with an American audience. For 20 years Nabokov supported his family by teaching at Wellesley College and Cornell University; but with the slow-building but eventually worldwide success of his controversial novel Lolita, Nabokov was able to devote his life solely to writing--and butterfly hunting. His large body of English-language works, as well as the translations of his early Russian short stories and novels, then began to garner increasing critical attention--both staunch praise and severe criticism.

Based on selections from The New York Public Library's extensive Vladimir Nabokov Archive, this seminar examines Nabokov's early writings and influences; his experiences with book, magazines and journal publishing in both Europe and America; and his "other" careers as a teacher and a lepidopterist.

• Identify some of Nabokov's early passions as well as other forces (familial, social) that would shape his later writing.
• List points of intersection between Nabokov's life and his fiction.
• Recognize the particular challenges Nabokov faced--and liberties that he took--when he translated his Russian works into English.
• Recognize the role that Nabokov's wife Véra and his son Dmitri played in his writing, teaching and translation work.
• List the works that Nabokov taught in his classes on literature.
• Describe Nabokov's lifelong passion for the study of butterflies.
• Chronicle Nabokov's English-language publishing career.

This seminar was derived from "Nabokov Under Glass: A Centennial Exhibition," held at The New York Public Library in 1999, of materials from the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, which includes the Vladimir Nabokov Archive. Materials courtesy of the Estate of Vladimir Nabokov.

Copyright 2002 The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. All rights reserved. All images used in this seminar are from the collections of The New York Public Library's Humanities and Social Sciences Library and are intended for personal or research use only. For reproduction or any other use of any of these images, contact NYPL Photographic Services & Permissions at permissions@nypl.org.

Browser: Netscape versions 4.x up to 4.76, or Internet Explorer versions 4.x or later. Your browser must have JavaScript enabled and must be set to accept cookies.

Network Connection: The recommended minimum connection is 56K modem with throughput of 34Kbps or more. A faster connection is encouraged to take better advantage of the media elements in the seminar.