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Harington, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Harington, Sir John, 1560?–1612, English author. He spent most of his career at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, where he became known for his indelicate humor. His Rabelaisian Metamorphosis of Ajax ...

Jaggard, William

(Encyclopedia)Jaggard, William, c.1568–1623, London printer and publisher. Although it seems that he had previously pirated some of Shakespeare's works, he was chosen by the editors John Heming and Henry Condell ...

Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins

(Encyclopedia)Freeman, Mary Eleanor Wilkins, 1852–1930, American author, b. Randolph, Mass. Her stories and novels paint a picture of Massachusetts and Vermont still under the influence of Puritanism, in her view...

Bell, Sir Charles

(Encyclopedia)Bell, Sir Charles, 1774–1842, Scottish anatomist and surgeon. He became professor of anatomy and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, in 1824 and was professor of surgery at the Univ. o...

Castle, Wendell

(Encyclopedia)Castle, Wendell, 1932–2018, American furniture designer, b. Emporia, Kans., grad. Univ. of Kansas (B.F.A. 1958, M.F.A. 1961). Trained as an industrial designer and sculptor, he became the preeminent...

Kafka, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Kafka, Franz fränts käfˈkä [key], 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish fami...

Lamb, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Lamb, Charles, 1775–1834, English essayist, b. London. He went to school at Christ's Hospital, where his lifelong friendship with Coleridge began. Lamb was a clerk at the India House from 1792 to 18...

Merchants of the Staple

(Encyclopedia)Merchants of the Staple or Merchant Staplers, English trading company that controlled the export of English raw wool. The first wool staple (i.e., a place designated by royal ordinance as a special ce...

Doughty, Charles Montagu

(Encyclopedia)Doughty, Charles Montagu dōˈtē, douˈtē [key], 1843–1926, English author and traveler. He is best known for his Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), describing his life among the Bedouins. Now cons...

Liddon, Henry Parry

(Encyclopedia)Liddon, Henry Parry, 1829–90, English clergyman, a noted preacher and lecturer. As canon of St. Paul's Cathedral (1870–90) and Dean Ireland professor of exegesis at Oxford (1870–82), he exercise...