A Brief Chronology:

Vladimir Nabokov's early career

1899	Born on 22 April in St. Petersburg to Vladimir Dmitrievich and Elena Ivanovna Rukavishnikov Nabokov.
1903	Birth of what Nabokov calls his "sentient life."
approx. 1905	Begins life-long study of nature (especially lepidoptera), chess, and literature.
1914	Composes his first poem. "A miserable concoction," he says, "containing many borrowings besides its pseudo-Pushkinian modulation."
1917	His family goes to the Crimea.
1919	The Nabokovs flee Russia; Vladimir and Sergei begin studies at Cambridge.
1922	Nabokov's father is killed by tsarists.
1923	Graduates with honors from Cambridge and publishes two volumes of poetry, A Cluster and The Empyrean Path. Settles in Berlin.
1925	Marriage to Véra Evseevna Slonim.
1926	Mary (trans. 1970)
1928	King, Queen, Knave (trans. 1968)
1929	The Defense (trans. 1964)
1930	The Eye (trans. 1965)
1931	Glory (trans. 1971)
1932	Camera Obscura (trans. as Laughter in the Dark, 1938)
1934	Despair (trans. 1966)
1935	Invitation to a Beheading (trans. 1959)
1937	The Gift (Not published complete in Russian till 1952, trans. 1963)
1940	Nabokov, wife, and son emigrate to U.S.
1941	Publication of Sebastian Knight

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