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Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm

(Encyclopedia)Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm frēˈdrĭkh vĭlˈhĕlm nēˈchə [key], 1844–1900, German philosopher, b. Röcken, Prussia. The son of a clergyman, Nietzsche studied Greek and Latin at Bonn and Leipz...

Senghor, Léopold Sédar

(Encyclopedia)Senghor, Léopold Sédar lāôpôldˈ sādärˈ säNgôrˈ [key], 1906–2001, African statesman and poet; president (1960–80) of the Republic of Senegal, b. Joal. The son of a prosperous landowner,...

Melville, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Melville, Herman, 1819–91, American author, b. New York City, considered one of the great American writers and a major figure in world literature. Like Moby-Dick, Pierre; or, The Ambiguities (18...

Nobel Prizes (table)

(Encyclopedia)Nobel Prizes

Dickens, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Dickens, Charles, 1812–70, English author, b. Portsmouth, one of the world's most popular, prolific, and skilled novelists. Charles Dickens is one of the giants of English literature. He wrote fro...

Miller, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Miller, Arthur, 1915–2005, American dramatist, b. New York City, grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1938. One of America's most distinguished playwrights, he has been hailed as the finest realist of the 20th-...

Stoppard, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Stoppard, Tom, 1937–, English playwright, b. Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), as Tomas Straussler. During his childhood he and his family moved to Singapore, later (1946) settling ...

Earhart, Amelia

(Encyclopedia)Earhart, Amelia ârˈhärt [key], 1897–1937, American aviator, b. Atchison, Kans. She was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane (1928) and the first woman to make a solo flight across th...

Edda

(Encyclopedia)Edda ĕdˈə [key], title applied to two distinct works in Old Icelandic. The Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, is a collection (late 13th cent.) of 34 mythological and heroic lays, most of which were compo...

Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...