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Berceo, Gonzalo de

(Encyclopedia)Berceo, Gonzalo de gōnthäˈlō ᵺā bārthāˈō [key], c.1198–1265?, earliest known Spanish medieval poet. He was a religious in a Benedictine monastery who wrote prolifically on saints and othe...

Chagall, Marc

(Encyclopedia)Chagall, Marc märk shəgälˈ [key], 1887–1985, Russian painter. In 1907, Chagall left his native Vitebsk for St. Petersburg, where he studied under L. N. Bakst. In Paris (1910) he began to assimil...

Nahmanides

(Encyclopedia)Nahmanides nähmänˈĭdēz [key], 1194–c.1270, Jewish scholar, exegete, and kabbalist, b. Spain. He wrote commentaries on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. A mystic, he rejected part of Maimonides' ...

Agnon, S. Y.

(Encyclopedia)Agnon, S. Y. (Shmuel Yosef Agnon) shmo͞oˈĕl yōˈsəf ägnōnˈ; yōˈzəf [key], 1888–1970, Israeli writer, b. Buczacz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Buchach, Ukraine), as Samuel Josef Czaczkes....

Clare, John

(Encyclopedia)Clare, John, 1793–1864, English poet. A romantic poet who wrote shortly after the vogue for such verse, he had a profound and singular gift for capturing nature in exquisitely specific detail. The s...

Goldfaden, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Goldfaden, Abraham gōldfädˈən [key], 1840–1908, Hebrew and Yiddish playwright, b. Starokonstantinov, Russia. He was the first important Yiddish playwright and a leading figure in Yiddish theater...

exile, in politics and government

(Encyclopedia)exile, removal of a national from his or her country, or the civilized parts of it, for a long period of time or for life. Exile may be a forceful expulsion by the government or a voluntary removal by...

Laurence, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Laurence, Margaret (Jean Margaret Laurence), 1926–87, Canadian novelist, b. Manitoba. She lived in Somaliland, Ghana, and England and many of her early works had an African setting. Laurence was par...

Pyatigorsk

(Encyclopedia)Pyatigorsk pyĭtyēgôrskˈ [key], city (1989 pop. 129,500), Stavropol Territory, SE European Russia, on the Podkumok River in the N Caucasus. The administrative center of the North Caucasian federal ...

Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Baron de La Motte-

(Encyclopedia)Fouqué, Friedrich Heinrich Karl, Baron de La Motte- frēˈdrĭkh hīnˈrĭkh kärl bärōnˈ də lä môt-fo͞okāˈ [key], 1777–1843, German poet and novelist. He wrote many chivalric romances, ta...