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Lloyd, Harold

(Encyclopedia)Lloyd, Harold, 1893–1971, American movie actor. Born in tiny Burchard, Kans., he came to California in 1912. Lloyd became famous for his comic portrayals of a wistful innocent with horn-rimmed glass...

Lagerkvist, Pär Fabian

(Encyclopedia)Lagerkvist, Pär Fabian pâr fäˈbēän läˈgərkvĭst [key], 1891–1974, Swedish poet, dramatist, and novelist. Lagerkvist is considered one of the most significant figures of modern Swedish liter...

Lardner, Ring

(Encyclopedia)Lardner, Ring (Ringgold Wilmer Lardner), 1885–1933, American humorist and short-story writer, b. Niles, Mich. He was a sports reporter in Chicago, St. Louis, and Boston from 1907 to 1919. His first ...

Pearl, The

(Encyclopedia)Pearl, The, one of four Middle English alliterative poems, all contained in a manuscript of c.1400, composed in the West Midland dialect, almost certainly by the same anonymous author, who flourished ...

Rogers, Will

(Encyclopedia)Rogers, Will (William Penn Adair Rogers), 1879–1935, American humorist, b. Oolagah, Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma). In his youth he worked as a cowboy in Oklahoma, and after traveling over the w...

Delibes, Miguel

(Encyclopedia)Delibes, Miguel mēgĕlˈ dālēˈbās [key], 1920–2010, Spanish novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, b. Valladolid. Prolific and widely translated, he is known for his descriptions of prov...

fable

(Encyclopedia)fable, brief allegorical narrative, in verse or prose, illustrating a moral thesis or satirizing human beings. The characters of a fable are usually animals who talk and act like people while retainin...

Pontiac, Ottawa chief

(Encyclopedia)Pontiac, fl. 1760–66, Ottawa chief. He may have been the chief met by Robert Rogers in 1760 when Rogers was on his way to take possession of the Western forts for the English. Although the Native Am...

O. Henry

(Encyclopedia)O. Henry, pseud. of William Sydney Porter, 1862–1910, American short-story writer, b. Greensboro, N.C. He went to Texas in 1882 and worked at various jobs—as teller in an Austin bank (1891–94) a...

Jarrell, Randall

(Encyclopedia)Jarrell, Randall jərĕlˈ [key], 1914–65, American poet and critic, b. Nashville, Tenn., grad. Vanderbilt Univ. (B.A., 1935; M.A., 1938). His poetry, reflecting an unusually sensitive and tragic vi...