Inflation is the increase in the prices of goods and services across an economy. When prices inflate, you need more money to buy the same things. The opposite of inflation is deflation, when prices are lower across a range of goods and services.
James Howell, a 17th century historian cum writer was the first writer to earn his living from writing alone in the English language; other writers of those times pursued writing as a hobby, not a profession as writing alone never paid enough.
One of the most famous writers of all time, Nabokov was a Russian novelist who emigrated with his family after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1919. Settling first in England, he studied Zoology, then Slavic and Romance Languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, before following his family to Berlin in 1922.