Vladimir Nabokov: Rare Photos Of The "Lolita" Author (PHOTOS)

Vladimir Nabokov's never-finished novel, "The Original of Laura," has finally been published to great interest and excitement. In honor of the new publication, LIFE Magazine is today releasing a gallery of rare photographs of the "Lolita" author. The Huffington Post brings you some highlights from the gallery below, along with LIFE's captions.

From LIFE:

"Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written," John Updike once wrote. "That is, ecstatically." In 1959, LIFE Magazine sent photographer Carl Mydans to Ithaca, New York to shoot the Russian-born author, whose magnum opus "Lolita" was breaking sales records across the country. Most of the photos from that series were never published -- a handful appeared in LIFE's international edition -- but they offer an unique look into the private life of one of the titans of American literature. To mark the recent publication of Nabokov's last, unfinished novel "The Original of Laura," LIFE now presents the unpublished photos from that shoot.

To see the rest of the rare and unpublished photos of Nabokov, go to LIFE.com.