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Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley

(Encyclopedia)Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 1689–1762, English author, noted primarily for her highly descriptive letters. She was the daughter of the first duke of Kingston. In 1712 she married Edward Wortley Mont...

Lagerlöf, Selma

(Encyclopedia)Lagerlöf, Selma sĕlˈmä läˈgərlöv [key], 1858–1940, Swedish novelist. Her native Värmland is the background for many of her excellent stories, which deal with peasant life. Novels include Th...

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...

Markiewicz, Constance Georgine, Countess

(Encyclopedia)Markiewicz, Constance Georgine, Countess märkyāˈvĭts [key], 1868–1927, Irish politician and patriot. A member of Sinn Féin, she was sentenced to death for her militant part in the Easter Rebell...

Beaumont, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Beaumont, Francis bōˈmŏnt [key], 1584?–1616, English dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he studied at Oxford and the Inner Temple. His literary reputation is linked with that of John Flet...

Tracy, Spencer

(Encyclopedia)Tracy, Spencer, 1900–1967, American film actor, b. Milwaukee, Wis. He began his career as an actor in summer stock and went into film work in 1930. His fine character portrayals won him Academy Awar...

Richards, Ellen Henrietta Swallow

(Encyclopedia)Richards, Ellen Henrietta Swallow, 1842–1911, American chemist, educator, and organizer of the home economics movement, b. Dunstable, Mass., grad. Vassar, 1870. In 1870 she began the study of chemis...

Schneiderman, Rose

(Encyclopedia)Schneiderman, Rose shnīˈdərmən [key], 1884–1972, American labor leader, b. Poland. She emigrated to the United States in 1890. After working as a lining stitcher in a cap factory, she was instru...

Crawford, Joan

(Encyclopedia)Crawford, Joan, 1908–77, American movie star, b. San Antonio, Tex., as Lucille Le Sueur. After working as a Broadway chorus dancer, Crawford began making films in 1926, eventually moving from musica...