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Kochanowski, Jan

(Encyclopedia)Kochanowski, Jan yän kôkhänôfˈskē [key], 1530–84, esteemed as the greatest poet of the Polish Renaissance. Kochanowski assimilated the poetic traditions of Italy and France and created new rhy...

Sachs, Nelly

(Encyclopedia)Sachs, Nelly zäks [key], 1891–1970, German poet and translator who lived after 1940 in Sweden. Sachs describes her own experiences and the sufferings of the European Jews in the collections In den ...

Ambler, Eric

(Encyclopedia)Ambler, Eric, 1909–98, English novelist. An advertising executive, he turned exclusively to writing after his realistic and innovative suspense novels became popular. Ambler has often been called th...

Garneau, François Xavier

(Encyclopedia)Garneau, François Xavier fräNswäˈ zävyāˈ gärnōˈ [key], 1809–66, French Canadian historian. He was educated at the Quebec seminary. He is remembered for his Histoire du Canada (3 vol., 1845...

Strachey, Lytton

(Encyclopedia)Strachey, Lytton (Giles Lytton Strachey), 1880–1932, English biographer and critic, educated at Cambridge. He was one of the leading members of the Bloomsbury group. Strachey is credited with having...

Ward, Mrs. Humphry

(Encyclopedia)Ward, Mrs. Humphry, 1851–1920, English novelist, whose maiden name was Mary Augusta Arnold; granddaughter of Thomas Arnold. She was born in Tasmania but was brought to England and grew up in Oxford;...

Bialik, Hayyim Nahman

(Encyclopedia)Bialik, Hayyim Nahman hīˈyəm näˈmən byäˈlēk [key], 1873–1934, Hebrew poet, publisher in Odessa, Berlin, and Tel-Aviv, b. Volhynia, Russia. As an editor and publisher Bialik spread the ideas...

De Quincey, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)De Quincey, Thomas də kwĭnˈsē [key], 1785–1859, English essayist. In 1802 he ran away from school and tramped about the country, eventually settling in London. His family soon found him and ente...

hall

(Encyclopedia)hall, a communicating passageway or, in medieval buildings, the large main room. In the feudal castle of N Europe it was a single apartment, and in it lord and retainers lounged, ate, and slept. From ...

Midrash

(Encyclopedia)Midrash mĭdˈräsh [key] [Heb.,=to examine, to investigate], verse by verse interpretation of Hebrew Scriptures, consisting of homily and exegesis, by Jewish teachers since about 400 b.c. Distinction...