THE AUTHOR

"Lolita is famous, not I."

"One cannot hope to understand an author if one cannot even pronounce his name... " He was born, he said, "Vladeemir," as in redeemer, "Nah-boa-koff" to a wealthy, aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, in 1899, and shared his birthday, April 23, with Shakespeare. "So does Shirley Temple!" he always added.

He had an idyllic childhood - boxing, tennis, chess, butterfly collecting - with four siblings in a vast estate. His mother encouraged his poetry, resulting in his first book (of 68 poems) at 17.