The book is an extensive collection of evidence and opinions about the life and work of the outstanding Russian-American writer, compiled from epistolary and diary fragments; Arranged in chronological order, they not only allow us to trace the process of formation of Vladimir Nabokov’s literary reputation, but also show the peculiarities of the perception of his works by representatives of different cultures, and recreate the image that was imprinted in the minds of his contemporaries. Among the authors who unwittingly contributed to the composition of the grandiose quotation mosaic are little-known writers of the “unnoticed generation” of Russian emigration, and famous authors of the “first row”: Georgy Adamovich, Mark Aldanov, Ivan Bunin, Gaito Gazdanov, Boris Zaitsev, Georgy Ivanov, Korney Chukovsky, Ivan Shmelev, Isaiah Berlin, Evelyn Waugh, Christopher Isherwood, Flannery O'Connor, Joyce Carol Oates, John Fowles, John Cheever, Kingsley Amis.