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Juan Carlos I

(Encyclopedia)Juan Carlos I hwän kärˈlōs [key], 1938–, king of Spain (1975–2014), b. Rome. The grandson of Alfonso XIII, he was educated in Switzerland and in Spain. Placed by his father, Don Juan de Borbó...

Alexie, Sherman

(Encyclopedia)Alexie, Sherman (Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr.), 1966–, Native American writer, b. Wellpinit, Spokane Indian Reservation, E Wash., studied Gonzaga Univ. and Washington State Univ. (B.A., 1991). Alexie ...

Perelman, S. J.

(Encyclopedia)Perelman, S. J. (Sidney Joseph Perelman) pĕrˈəlmən [key], 1904–79, American comic writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. He entered the magazine world as a cartoonist for a New York weekly, soon turning from...

Pérez, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Pérez, Antonio äntôˈnyō pāˈrĕth [key], b. 1534 or 1539, d. 1611, Spanish politician. Ambitious and unscrupulous, he became secretary to King Philip II and was, with the princesa de Éboli, a c...

Pasolini, Pier Paolo

(Encyclopedia)Pasolini, Pier Paolo pyĕr päˈōlō päsōlēˈnē [key], 1922–75, Italian writer and film director. A former Roman Catholic and a Marxist, Pasolini brought to his work a combination of religious ...

Schiller, Friedrich von

(Encyclopedia)Schiller, Friedrich von, 1759–1805, German dramatist, poet, and historian, one of the greatest of German literary figures, b. Marbach, Württemberg. The poets of German romanticism were strongly inf...

Miranda, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Miranda, Francisco de fränsēˈskō ᵺā mēränˈdä [key], 1750–1816, Venezuelan revolutionist and adventurer. A hero of the struggle for independence from Spain, he is sometimes called the Prec...

Mo Yan

(Encyclopedia)Mo Yan, 1955–, Chinese novelist, pen name of Guan Moye, b. Shandong prov. Mo is one of contemporary China's most prolific and popular writers. He left school in the fifth grade and did farm and fact...

Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban

(Encyclopedia)Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban bärtōlōmāˈ āstāˈbän mo͞orēˈlyō [key], 1617?–1682, Spanish religious and portrait painter. He was born in Seville, where most of his life was spent. There, c...

gaucho

(Encyclopedia)gaucho gouˈchō [key], cowboy of the Argentine and Uruguayan pampas (grasslands). The typical gaucho, a familiar figure in the 18th and 19th cent., was a daring, skillful horseman and plainsman. As f...