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Pavese, Cesare

(Encyclopedia)Pavese, Cesare chāˈzärā pävĕˈsā [key], 1908–50, Italian novelist, poet, and translator. A major literary figure in postwar Italy, Pavese brought American influence to Italian literature thro...

Mallea, Eduardo

(Encyclopedia)Mallea, Eduardo āˌᵺwärˈᵺō mäyāˈä [key], 1903–82, Argentine novelist and essayist. Mallea is considered one of the outstanding Latin American literary figures. Existentialist thought, pa...

Marville, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Marville, Charles, 1813–79, pioneering French photographer, b. Charles-François Bossu, name changed c.1831. An illustrator who drew mainly landscapes and urban scenes for use in popular books and m...

Kingston, city, Jamaica

(Encyclopedia)Kingston, city (1991 pop. 97,424), capital and largest city of Jamaica, SE Jamaica. The country's chief port, it has one of the finest harbors in the West Indies and exports sugar, rum, molasses, and ...

Waltari, Mika

(Encyclopedia)Waltari, Mika mēˈkə välˈtärē [key], 1908–79, Finnish author. Waltari wrote plays, detective stories, and travelogues, but is best known for his novels. After completing his university educati...

Proxmire, William

(Encyclopedia)Proxmire, William (Edward William Proxmire), 1915–2005, U.S. senator (1957–89), b. Lake Forest, Ill. He worked in army counterintelligence during World War II and later entered politics, serving (...

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, 1890–1998, American journalist, writer, and environmentalist, b. Minneapolis, grad. Wellesley College, 1912. In 1915 she moved to Miami and began working for a newspaper t...

custom

(Encyclopedia)custom, habitual group pattern of behavior that is transmitted from one generation to another and is not biologically determined. Since societies are perpetually changing, no matter how slowly, all cu...

Common Cause

(Encyclopedia)Common Cause, U.S. organization that seeks a “reordering of national priorities and revitalization of the public process to make our political and governmental institutions more responsive to the ne...

Clement IV, pope

(Encyclopedia)Clement IV, d. 1268, pope (1265–68), a Frenchman named Guy le gros Foulques; successor of Urban IV. He was a lay adviser of King Louis IX of France, but after his wife's death he entered the church....

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