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Waller, Fats

(Encyclopedia)Waller, Fats, 1904–43, American jazz musician, singer, and composer, whose original name was Thomas Wright Waller, b. New York City. Waller began playing the piano as a child, and later studied with...

Burton, Harold Hitz

(Encyclopedia)Burton, Harold Hitz, 1888–1964, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1945–58), b. Jamaica Plain (now part of Boston), Mass. Admitted to the bar in 1912, he built a prosperous law practice ...

Buxtehude, Dietrich

(Encyclopedia)Buxtehude, Dietrich dēˈtrĭkh bo͝oksˌtəho͞oˈdə [key], c.1637–1707, Danish composer and organist. From 1668 until his death he was organist at Lübeck, where he established a famous series of...

chaconne and passacaglia

(Encyclopedia)chaconne päˌsəkälˈyə [key], two closely related musical forms popular during the baroque period. Both are in triple meter time and employ a characteristic recurring harmonic pattern or actual ba...

Mitford, Nancy

(Encyclopedia)Mitford, Nancy, 1904–73, English novelist and biographer, b. London. She managed a London bookshop during World War II and moved to Paris in 1945. Mitford and her five celebrated and politically div...

Narayan, R. K.

(Encyclopedia)Narayan, R. K. (Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayan) nərīˈyän [key], 1906–2001, Indian novelist, b. Madras (now Chennai). Narayan, who wrote in English, published his first novel, Swami and Friends, ...

Hart, Moss

(Encyclopedia)Hart, Moss, 1904–61, American dramatist, b. New York City, studied at Columbia. His first important play, Once in a Lifetime (1930), marked the beginning of a long collaboration with George S. Kaufm...

Hammerstein, Oscar, 2d

(Encyclopedia)Hammerstein, Oscar, 2d, 1895–1960, American lyricist and librettist, b. New York City, grad. Columbia, 1916; grandson of Oscar Hammerstein. His first success was Wildflower (1923), with music by Vin...

Haywood, William Dudley

(Encyclopedia)Haywood, William Dudley, 1869–1928, American labor leader, known as Big Bill Haywood, b. Salt Lake City, Utah. He began work as a miner at 15 years of age. In 1896 he joined the newly organized West...

Andersen, Hans Christian

(Encyclopedia)Andersen, Hans Christian, 1805–75, Danish poet, novelist, and writer of fairy tales. Born to an illiterate washerwoman and reared in poverty, he left Odense at 14 for Copenhagen, where he lived with...