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Fonda, Jane

(Encyclopedia)Fonda, Jane, 1937–, American actress, b. New York City; daughter of Henry Fonda and sister of Peter Fonda. First cast in pert and sexy roles, she later distinguished herself in dramatic parts, often...

Mo Yan

(Encyclopedia)Mo Yan, 1955–, Chinese novelist, pen name of Guan Moye, b. Shandong prov. Mo is one of contemporary China's most prolific and popular writers. He left school in the fifth grade and did farm and fact...

Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban

(Encyclopedia)Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban bärtōlōmāˈ āstāˈbän mo͞orēˈlyō [key], 1617?–1682, Spanish religious and portrait painter. He was born in Seville, where most of his life was spent. There, c...

Nureyev, Rudolf

(Encyclopedia)Nureyev, Rudolf no͝orĕˈyĕf [key], 1938–93, Russian ballet dancer, b. near Irkutsk, Siberian USSR (now Russia). Nureyev studied in Ufa and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), and in 1958 he became a ...

Miranda, Francisco de

(Encyclopedia)Miranda, Francisco de fränsēˈskō ᵺā mēränˈdä [key], 1750–1816, Venezuelan revolutionist and adventurer. A hero of the struggle for independence from Spain, he is sometimes called the Prec...

parody

(Encyclopedia)parody, mocking imitation in verse or prose of a literary work. The following poem by Robert Southey was parodied by Lewis Carroll: “You are old, Father William,” the young man cried; “The few l...

Valladolid

(Encyclopedia)Valladolid välyäᵺōlēᵺˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 333,680), capital of Valladolid prov. and the administrative center of Castile and León, N central Spain, at the confluence of the Pisuerga and ...

Qian Zhongshu

(Encyclopedia)Qian Zhongshu or Ch'ien Chung-shu, 1910–98, Chinese writer and scholar, grad. Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (1933). After attending Oxford and the Sorbonne, he returned (1939) to China and taught at sever...

tennis

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Tennis court tennis, game played indoors or outdoors by two players (singles) or four players (doubles) on a level court. In 1900 the international team competition known as the Davis Cup t...

Halleck, Henry Wager

(Encyclopedia)Halleck, Henry Wager, 1815–72, Union general in the American Civil War, b. Oneida co., N.Y., grad. West Point, 1839. He entered the Corps of Engineers and became an expert on fortifications; his Ele...