Russian Years

The encyclopedic biography of Vladimir Nabokov, written by Brian Boyd, a professor at the University of Auckland and Princeton University, not only brought into scholarly and reader circulation similar experiences of his predecessors but also "closed" the question of a new biography of Nabokov. Professor Boyd's fundamental work received the highest praise from researchers and fans of V. Nabokov's work for its detail and concise accuracy of presentation, universal reference apparatus, and notes, as well as a carefully selected collection of archival photographic materials. Significant help (which is now hard to overestimate) was provided to Professor Boyd by the writer's widow, Vera Evseevna, and their son, Dmitry Vladimirovich.

Since its publication in English (1990, 1991), this two-volume work has been the only authoritative source of information about Nabokov's life and work. The Russian edition, prepared by us together with the author, also includes the results of Professor Boyd's research in subsequent years, and for almost ten years it has been the...