Nabokov in America on the road to Lolita

Writing about the author of the immortal Lolita and Pale Fire, born to a distinguished Russian family, Robert Roper fills out Vladimir Nabokov's American period, covering Nabokov's critical friendship with Edmund Wilson, his time at Cornell, his role at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. But Nabokov in America finds its narrative heart in his serial sojourns into the wilds of the West, undertaken with his wife, Vera, and their son over more than a decade. Nabokov covered more than 200,000 miles as he indulged his other passion: butterfly collecting. Roper has mined fresh sources to bring detail to these journeys, and traces their significant influence in Nabokov's work: on two-lane highways and in late-'40s motels and cafes, we feel Lolita draw near, and understand Nabokov's seductive familiarity with the American mundane." --