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Maeterlinck, Maurice

(Encyclopedia)Maeterlinck, Maurice môrēsˈ mätĕrlăNkˈ [key], 1862–1949, Belgian author who wrote in French. After practicing law unsuccessfully for several years, he went to Paris in 1897. He had already be...

Chabon, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Chabon, Michael, 1963–, American writer, b. Washington, D.C., B.A. Univ. of Pittsburgh, 1984, M.A. Univ. of California, Irvine, 1987. Chabon's novels combine intriguing plots, usually involving Jewi...

Chauncy, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Chauncy, Charles chônˈsē, chänˈ– [key], 1705–87, American Congregational clergyman, b. Boston. He was ordained as a minister of the First Church, Boston, in 1727 and remained in that pulpit f...

Mistral, Gabriela

(Encyclopedia)Mistral, Gabriela mēsträlˈ [key], 1889–1957, Chilean poet whose original name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga. She was a teacher in and director of rural schools in Chile before she attained wider acc...

Wilson, Colin

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Colin, 1931–2013, English writer, b. Leicester. Born into a working-class family and largely self-educated, Wilson in many of his books exhorts humankind to expand its powers and realize its...

Tanizaki, Junichiro

(Encyclopedia)Tanizaki, Junichiro jo͝onēˈchērō tänēˈzäkē [key], 1886–1965, Japanese writer. A witness to the devastating Tokyo earthquake of 1923, he moved to the Kansai region (the greater Kyoto-Osaka ...

Tokarczuk, Olga

(Encyclopedia)Tokarczuk, Olga, 1962–, Polish writer. Widely considered the foremost Polish novelist of her generation, she also is politically active and has been a frequent critic of Poland's right-wing governme...

runes

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Examples of runes runes, ancient characters used in Teutonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian inscriptions. They were probably first used by the East Goths (c.300), who are thought to have deriv...

Powers, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Powers, Richard, 1957–, American novelist, b. Evanston, Ill., grad. Univ of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana (B.A., 1978; M.A, 1980). He taught at his alma mater from 1996 to 2013, when he joined Stanford...

Ditko, Steve

(Encyclopedia)Ditko, Steve (Stephen John Ditko), 1927–2018, American comic-book artist, b. Johnstown, Pa., studied early 1950s Cartoonist and Illustrator School (later School of Visual Arts), New York City. Much ...