Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov was born in Russia in 1899, but became a famous author after moving to Western Europe and writing in English and French as well as Russian. A master prose stylist in three languages, Nabokov's books had innovative structures or unusual topics, like 1955's Lolita, about a pedophile; 1957's Pnin, about a Russian professor's at an American college; and 1962's Pale Fire, about a poem by the same name as the book's title.