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Motley, Archibald John, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Motley, Archibald John, Jr., 1891–1981, African American artist, b. New Orleans, grad. Art Institute of Chicago (1918). He was an important figure in the early Harlem Renaissance, though he spent mo...

Hamlisch, Marvin

(Encyclopedia)Hamlisch, Marvin, 1944–2012, American composer, conductor, and pianist, b. New York City, grad. Queens College (B.S., 1967). A versatile and prolific composer of melodies ranging from the soulfully ...

Juana Inés de la Cruz

(Encyclopedia)Juana Inés de la Cruz hwäˈnä ēnāsˈ dā lä kro͞os [key], 1651–95, Mexican poet. She is considered the greatest lyric poet of the colonial period. A beautiful and intellectually precocious gi...

Amado, Jorge

(Encyclopedia)Amado, Jorge zhôrˈzhĭ əmäˈdo͝o [key], 1912–2001, Brazilian novelist. Amado's works deal largely with the poor urban black and mulatto communities of Bahia. His early novels, such as The Viole...

Farah, Nuruddin

(Encyclopedia)Farah, Nuruddin, 1945–, Somali novelist, playwright, and essayist. Educated in Ethiopia, India, and England, he writes in English. His first novel, From a Crooked Rib (1970), was about a girl who fl...

Prince

(Encyclopedia)Prince, 1958–2016, American singer and songwriter, b. Minneapolis, Minn., as Prince Rogers Nelson. Biracial, slim, and sexily androgynous, he was an electrifying performer who composed hundreds of s...

Bhattacharya, Bhabhani

(Encyclopedia)Bhattacharya, Bhabhani bəbäˈnē bätəchärˈyə [key], 1906–88, Indian novelist, journalist, and translator. Bhattacharya was educated in India and England and taught and traveled in many parts ...

McCullers, Carson

(Encyclopedia)McCullers, Carson, 1917–67, American novelist, b. Columbus, Ga. as Lula Carson Smith, studied at Columbia. The central theme of her novels is the spiritual isolation that underlies the human conditi...

Mason, Bobbie Ann

(Encyclopedia)Mason, Bobbie Ann, 1940–, American regional author, b. Mayfield, Ky., grad. Univ. of Kentucky (B.A., 1962), State Univ. of New York, Binghamton (M.A., 1966), Univ. of Connecticut (Ph.D., 1972). Her ...

Marx Brothers

(Encyclopedia)Marx Brothers, team of American movie comedians. The members were Julius (1890?–1977), known as Groucho; Arthur (1888?–1964), originally Adolph and known as Harpo; Leonard (1887?–1961), known as...