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Dovrefjell

(Encyclopedia)Dovrefjell dôˈvrəfyĕl [key], mountainous region of S Norway, c.100 mi (160 km) long and 40 mi (60 km) wide, culminating in Snøhetta (7,500 ft/2,286 m high). It is crossed by the Dovre railway and...

John II, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)John II, 1405–54, Spanish king of Castile and León (1406–54), son and successor of Henry III. He was little interested in government, which he entrusted to his favorite Alvaro de Luna. Literature...

Hellenistic civilization

(Encyclopedia)Hellenistic civilization. The conquests of Alexander the Great spread Hellenism immediately over the Middle East and far into Asia. After his death in 323 b.c., the influence of Greek civilization con...

Newbery, John

(Encyclopedia)Newbery, John, 1713–67, English publisher and bookseller. He established juvenile literature as an important branch of the publishing business. Included among his publications is Little Goody Two Sh...

König Rother

(Encyclopedia)König Rother könˈĭk rōtˈər [key], earliest heroic minstrel epic from the precourtly period of Middle High German literature. Written in Bavaria in popular verse style by an unknown Rhenish poet...

Rustico di Filippo

(Encyclopedia)Rustico di Filippo ro͞oˈstēkō dē fēlēpˈpō [key], 13th cent. Italian poet. He was perhaps one of the first to use the Tuscan dialect in literature. Some 60 of his sonnets, most of them in a bu...

Rheinsberg

(Encyclopedia)Rheinsberg rīnsˈbĕrk [key], town, Potsdam dist., NE Germany. It is a tourist and manufacturing center. The rococo palace in Rheinsberg was the residence (1736–40) of Crown Prince Frederick, later...

Ritson, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Ritson, Joseph, 1752–1803, English antiquarian and scholar, b. Stockton-on-Tees. An industrious student of English literature, he attacked Thomas Warton's scholarship in Observations on Warton's His...

Seifert, Jaroslav

(Encyclopedia)Seifert, Jaroslav, 1901–86, Czech poet. Starting as a revolutionary “proletarian” poet, Seifert soon began to emphasize fantasy and enchantment as antidotes to modern technological civilization....

Alden, Henry Mills

(Encyclopedia)Alden, Henry Mills ôlˈdən [key], 1836–1919, American editor, b. Mt. Tabor, Vt. He was editor of Harper's Magazine from 1869 until his death. A highly religious and fastidious man, he directed his...