IntroductionBestknownastheauthorofLolita,thescandalous1950snovelaboutanunderagetemptress,VladimirNabokovwasmuchmorethanachronicleroflecherousprofessors.Hewasoneofthemostproductiveandcreativewritersofhisera.Hisnovels,shortstories,essays,poems,andmemoirsallsharehiscosmopolitanwit,hisloveofwordplay,hispassionforsatire,andhiscomplexsocialcommentary.Nabokov'sworkappealstothesenses,imagination,intellect,andemotions.Histhemesareuniversal:theroleoftheartistinsociety;themythofjourney,adventure,andreturn;andhumanity'sconceptsofmemoryandtime,whichhecalledatightropewalkacrossthe"wateryabyssofthepastandtheaerialabyssofthefuture."In1940,NabokovtaughtSlaviclanguagesatStanfordUniversity.From1941to1948hetaughtatWellesleyCollegeandbecameaprofessorofliterature.HealsowasaresearchfellowinentomologyattheMuseumofComparativeZoologyatHarvardUniversityfrom1942to1948.Whileteaching,hewroteTheRealLifeofSebastianKnight(1941),aparodyofthemystery-storygenre,whoseheroisderivedfromtheauthor'sownlife.AGuggenheimfellowshipin1943resultedinhisscholarly1944biographicalstudyofRussianauthorNicolaiGogol.NabokovbecameanAmericancitizenin1945andbythenwasaregularcontributortopopularmagazines.In1949NabokovwasappointedprofessorofRussianandEuropeanliteratureatCornellUniversity,wherehetaughtuntil1959.HismemoirofhisearlylifeinRussia,Speak,Memory(1951),isacharmingautobiography.SeveralshortsketchespublishedintheNewYorker,wereincorporatedintoPnin(1957),hisnovelaboutaRussianemigreteachingatanAmericanuniversity.In1959NabokovpublishedInvitationtoaBeheading,astoryofamanawaitingexecution,whichhehadfirstwritteninRussianin1938.In1960heandhisfamilymovedtoMontreux,Switzerland.NabokovreceivedcriticalacclaimforPaleFire(1962),astrange,multidimensionalexerciseinthetechniquesofparableandparody,writtenasa999-linepoemwithalengthycommentarybyadementedNewEnglandscholarwhoisactuallyanexiledmythicalking.NabokovdiedJuly2,1977,atthePalaceHotelinMontreaux,Switzerland,wherehehadlivedsince1959.DespiteNabokov'svastproductivity,scho