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Hardy, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Hardy, Thomas, 1840–1928, English novelist and poet, b. near Dorchester, one of the great English writers of the 19th cent. The son of a stonemason, he derived a love of music from his father and a ...

Fuller, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Fuller, Margaret, 1810–50, American writer, lecturer, and public intellectual, b. Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass. She was one of the most influential personalities in the American liter...

folktale

(Encyclopedia)folktale, general term for any of numerous varieties of traditional narrative. The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to pre-industrial, ancient, and more modern and develop...

Toronto

(Encyclopedia)Toronto tərŏnˈtō [key], city (1998 est pop. 2,400,000), provincial capital, S Ont., Canada, on Lake Ontario. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and since the 1970s has been one of the fastest-c...

Homer

(Encyclopedia)Homer, principal figure of ancient Greek literature; the first European poet. The Odyssey is written in 24 books and begins nearly ten years after the fall of Troy. In the first part, Telemachus, Od...

Angevin

(Encyclopedia)Angevin ănˈjəvĭn [key] [Fr.,=of Anjou], name of two medieval dynasties originating in France. The first ruled over parts of France and over Jerusalem and England; the second ruled over parts of Fr...

Blaine, James Gillespie

(Encyclopedia)Blaine, James Gillespie, 1830–93, American politician, b. West Brownsville, Pa. As Secretary of State, Blaine was particularly energetic in fostering closer relations with the Latin American natio...

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