How did Vladimir Nabokov’s teaching at Cornell University influence Pnin?

Vladimir Nabokov’s tenure as a professor of Russian and European literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1958 served as a primary inspiration for his 1957 novel, Pnin.1

The novel is to some extent based on the experiences Nabokov had while teaching in Ithaca, New York. The protagonist, Timofey Pnin, is an older, exiled Russian professor who teaches his native language at a fictional institution called Waindell College. Through this character, Nabokov drew upon his own life to create a comic and tender portrait of a defenseless intellectual navigating the complexities of American academic and social life.12