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Bidermann, Jakob

(Encyclopedia)Bidermann, Jakob yäˈkôp bēˈdərmän [key], 1578–1639, German Jesuit dramatist and poet. Based on saint and martyr legends, Bidermann's plays were among the finest artistic expressions of the Co...

Boito, Arrigo

(Encyclopedia)Boito, Arrigo ärrēˈgo bôˈētō [key], 1842–1918, Italian composer and librettist. His opera Mefistofele (1868, rev. 1875), influenced by Wagner's music-drama, helped to bring about a new dramat...

Bali

(Encyclopedia)Bali bäˈlē [key], island and (with two offshore islets) province, c.2,200 sq mi (5,700 sq ...

Eastwood, Clint

(Encyclopedia)Eastwood, Clint (Clinton Eastwood, Jr.), 1930–, American actor and director, b. San Francisco. Eastwood, who began his acting career in 1955, came to public attention in the TV Western Rawhide and i...

Ibsen, Henrik

(Encyclopedia)Ibsen, Henrik hĕnˈrĭk ĭbˈsən [key], 1828–1906, Norwegian dramatist and poet. His early years were lonely and miserable. Distressed by the consequences of his family's financial ruin and on his...

Barnes, Harry Elmer

(Encyclopedia)Barnes, Harry Elmer, 1889–1968, American historian and sociologist, b. Auburn, N.Y. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1918 and taught economics, sociology, and history at various institutions o...

Livius Andronicus

(Encyclopedia)Livius Andronicus lĭˈvēəs ăndrənīˈkəs [key], fl. 3d cent. b.c., Roman poet, a Greek, b. Tarentum (Taranto). He was captured and made a slave at the fall of Tarentum and was freed by his maste...

Menen, Aubrey Clarence

(Encyclopedia)Menen, Aubrey Clarence mĕnˈən [key], 1912–89, English novelist, b. London. The son of an Indian father and an Irish mother, he was a drama critic, theater director, and advertising agency executi...

Monro, Harold

(Encyclopedia)Monro, Harold, 1879–1932, English poet, b. Belgium. In 1911 he founded the Poetry Review and the following year established the Poetry Bookshop, which became a refuge and intellectual center for poe...

Larra, Mariano José de

(Encyclopedia)Larra, Mariano José de märyäˈnō hōsāˈ ᵺā läˈrä [key], 1809–37, Spanish satirist, b. Madrid. Using several pseudonyms, Larra wrote a series of satirical articles on Spanish politics and...