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Tyler, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Tyler, Anne, 1941–, American novelist, b. Minneapolis. Her witty and perceptive fiction, which is often set in the American South and frequently in and around Baltimore, portrays vivid contemporary ...

double bass

(Encyclopedia)double bass, bowed stringed musical instrument, the contrabass of the modern orchestral string section. It originated as a double-bass viol, an instrument described as early as 1566. A true double-bas...

eisteddfod

(Encyclopedia)eisteddfod īstĕᵺˈvəd, –vôd [key] [Welsh,=session], Welsh competitive festival. Contests traditionally are held in all the arts and crafts, with special emphasis on music and poetry. The Natio...

Ellis, Havelock

(Encyclopedia)Ellis, Havelock (Henry Havelock Ellis), 1859–1939, English psychologist and author. He became a qualified physician but devoted himself to scientific study and writing. Although the first volume of ...

Khachaturian, Aram Ilich

(Encyclopedia)Khachaturian, Aram Ilich ərämˈ ĭlyēchˈ khäˌchəto͞oryänˈ [key], 1903–78, Russian composer of Armenian parentage, b. Tiflis (now Tbilisi). Khachaturian moved to Moscow in the early 1920s a...

Wilson, Sir Angus

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Sir Angus, 1913–91, English novelist, b. South Africa. As a novelist, he attempted to delineate a society in which traditional values have lost their force and human relationships are corrup...

performance art

(Encyclopedia)performance art, multimedia art form originating in the 1970s in which performance is the dominant mode of expression. Perfomance art may incorporate such elements as instrumental or electronic music,...

Springsteen, Bruce Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Springsteen, Bruce Frederick, 1949–, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, nicknamed “The Boss,” b. Long Branch, N.J. Springsteen established himself as a singer and songwriter, as well as...

Berryman, John

(Encyclopedia)Berryman, John bĕrˈēmən [key], 1914–72, American poet and critic, b. McAlester, Okla., as John Allyn Smith, Jr., grad. Columbia, 1936, also studied at Cambridge. His father committed suicide whe...

Merian, Matthäus

(Encyclopedia)Merian, Matthäus māˈrēän [key], the elder, 1593–1650, Swiss engraver and draftsman. In Frankfurt am Main from c.1623, he produced, with help from assistants, numerous engravings of battles and...