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Acosta, José de

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, José de hōsāˈ ᵺā äkōˈstä [key], c.1539–1600, Spanish Jesuit missionary to Peru. He wrote a well-known history of the Spanish colonial period, The Natural and Moral History of the ...

Ribeiro, João Ubaldo

(Encyclopedia)Ribeiro, João Ubaldo, 1941–, Brazilian journalist and novelist. His novel Sergeant Getúlio (1971, tr. 1978) narrates the efforts of a mercenary to deliver a prisoner in remote NE Brazil; it is not...

Gringore, Pierre

(Encyclopedia)Gringore, Pierre pyĕr grăNgôrˈ [key], c.1475–c.1539, French dramatist and poet. He produced ceremonial pageants and mystery plays and wrote the Jeu du prince des sots (1512), a dramatic tetralog...

Habermas, Jürgen

(Encyclopedia)Habermas, Jürgen yûrˈgən häˈbûrmäs [key], 1929–, German philosopher. He is a professor at the Univ. of Frankfurt (emeritus since 1994) and is the best-known contemporary proponent of critica...

decadents

(Encyclopedia)decadents, in literature, name loosely applied to those 19th-century, fin-de-siècle European authors who sought inspiration, both in their lives and in their writings, in aestheticism and in all the ...

Sacchetti, Franco

(Encyclopedia)Sacchetti, Franco frängˈkō säk-kĕtˈtē [key], c.1330–1400, Italian author. He held a number of public offices in Florence and wrote lyric verse and moral discourses. He is best remembered for ...

McCarthy, Kevin Owen

(Encyclopedia)McCarthy, Kevin Owen, 1965–, U.S. politician, b. Bakersfield, Calif., grad. California State Univ., Bakersfield (B.S. 1989, M.B.A. 1994). A conservative Republican, he was elected to the California ...

Diefenbaker, John George

(Encyclopedia)Diefenbaker, John George dēˈfənbāˌkər [key], 1895–1979, Canadian political leader. Elected to Parliament (1940), he succeeded George Drew as leader of the Progressive Conservative party (1956)...

Hastert, Dennis

(Encyclopedia)Hastert, Dennis (John Dennis “Denny” Hastert) hăsˈtərt [key], 1942–, U.S. congressman, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1999–2007), b. Aurora, Ill. He attended Wheaton College ...

DeLay, Tom

(Encyclopedia)DeLay, Tom (Thomas Dale DeLay), 1947–, American politician, b. Laredo, Tex., grad. Univ. of Houston (B.S., 1970). A conservative Republican businessman, he entered politics (1979) as a Texas state l...