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Abbey Theatre

(Encyclopedia)Abbey Theatre, Irish theatrical company devoted primarily to indigenous drama. W. B. Yeats was a leader in founding (1902) the Irish National Theatre Society with Lady Gregory, J. M. Synge, and A. E. ...

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. vŏnˈəgət [key] 1922–2007, American novelist, b. Indianapolis. After serving in World War II, he worked as a police reporter and wrote short stories for mainstream and science...

Lincoln, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Lincoln, Abraham lĭngˈkən [key], 1809–65, 16th President of the United States (1861–65). As time passed Lincoln became more and more the object of adulation; a full-blown “Lincoln legend”...

Austin

(Encyclopedia)Austin. 1 City, seat of Mower co., SE Minn., on the Cedar River, near the Iowa line; inc. 1868. The commercial and industrial center of a rich farm region, it is noted as home to the ...

prophet

(Encyclopedia)prophet [Gr.,=foreteller], a religious leader and spokesperson, particularly used in the Bible. The prophets emitted messages from the divine through inspired speech, the interpretation of omens and d...

Dewey, John

(Encyclopedia)Dewey, John, 1859–1952, American philosopher and educator, b. Burlington, Vt., grad. Univ. of Vermont, 1879, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1884. He taught at the universities of Minnesota (1888–89), Michig...

Trollope, Anthony

(Encyclopedia)Trollope, Anthony trŏlˈəp [key], 1815–82, one of the great English novelists. After spending seven unhappy years in London as a clerk in the general post office, he transferred (1841) to Ireland ...

Kerouac, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Kerouac, Jack (John Kerouac) kĕrˈəwăkˌ [key], 1922–69, American novelist, b. Lowell, Mass., studied at Columbia. One of the leaders of the beat generation, a term he is said to have coined, he ...

Hopkins, Gerard Manley

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 1844–89, English poet, educated at Oxford. Entering the Roman Catholic Church in 1866 and the Jesuit novitiate in 1868, he was ordained in 1877. Upon becoming a Jesuit he bur...

Hamsun, Knut

(Encyclopedia)Hamsun, Knut kəno͞otˈ hämˈso͝on [key], 1859–1952, Norwegian author, a pioneer in the development of the modern novel. Virtually without formal education, in his youth he led a wandering life, ...