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Peele, George

(Encyclopedia)Peele, George, 1558?–1597?, English playwright, educated at Oxford. He experimented in a variety of forms, including the pageant, history, pastoral, comedy, and melodrama, but his best-known work is...

Lewis, Matthew Gregory

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 1775–1818, English author, b. London. In addition to his writing he pursued a diplomatic career and served for a time in Parliament. He was often called “Monk” Lewis from...

Tarkington, Booth

(Encyclopedia)Tarkington, Booth (Newton Booth Tarkington), 1869–1946, American author, b. Indianapolis. His most characteristic and popular works were his genial novels of life in small Middle Western towns, incl...

Portuguese language

(Encyclopedia)CEE Portuguese language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Romance languages). It is the mother tongue of about 170 million people, c...

Provençal literature

(Encyclopedia)Provençal literature, vernacular literature of S France. Provençal, or Occitan, as the language is now often called, appears to have been the first vernacular tongue used in French commerce and lite...

Dunlap, William

(Encyclopedia)Dunlap, William dŭnˈlăp [key], 1766–1839, American dramatist and theatrical manager, b. Perth Amboy, N.J. Inspired by the success of The Contrast by Royall Tyler, he began to write plays for the ...

Day, Doris

(Encyclopedia)Day, Doris, 1922–2019, American film actress, b. Cincinnati as Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff. Day is best known for her wholesome, girl-next-door roles. She began her career as a 1940s band singer, and ...

Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra

(Encyclopedia)Chatterjee, Bankim Chandra bəngˈkĭm chŭnˈdrə chäˈtərjē [key], 1838–94, Indian nationalist writer, b. Bengal. He popularized a Bengali prose style that became the vehicle of the major natio...

Herndon, William Henry

(Encyclopedia)Herndon, William Henry, 1818–91, friend, law partner, and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, b. Greensburg, Ky. In 1844 he became the junior member of the Springfield, Ill., law firm of Lincoln and Hern...

Greene, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Greene, Robert, 1558?–1592, English author. His short romances, written in the manner of Lyly's Euphues, include Pandosto (1588), from which Shakespeare drew the plot for A Winter's Tale, and Menaph...