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belles-lettres

(Encyclopedia)belles-lettres bĕl-lĕˈtrə [key] [from the French for literature, literally “fine letters”], literature that is appreciated for the beauty, artistry, and originality of its style and tone rathe...

Castro y Bellvís, Guillén de

(Encyclopedia)Castro y Bellvís, Guillén de gēlyānˈ dā käsˈtrō ē bĕlvēsˈ [key], 1569–1631, Spanish dramatist, best known of the Valencian group of playwrights of the Golden Age. Three of his plays dra...

Taylor, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Tom, 1817–80, English dramatist and editor. His most famous play is Our American Cousin (1858), performed at Ford's Theater in Washington, D. C., when Lincoln was assassinated. Of his more t...

Whetstone, George

(Encyclopedia)Whetstone, George, 1551?–1587, English dramatist and poet. His chief work, the play Promos and Cassandra (1578), is important in the development of English domestic drama and was a source for Shakes...

Schnitzler, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Schnitzler, Arthur ärˈto͝or shnĭtsˈlər [key], 1862–1931, Austrian dramatist and novelist. The son of a prominent Jewish Viennese physician, he studied and practiced medicine until he attracted...

Odets, Clifford

(Encyclopedia)Odets, Clifford ōdĕtsˈ [key], 1906–63, American dramatist, b. Philadelphia. After graduating from high school he became an actor and in 1931 joined the Group Theatre. Turning his attention from a...

Allen, Woody

(Encyclopedia)Allen, Woody, 1935–, American actor, writer, and director, one of contemporary America's leading filmmakers, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Allen Stewart Konigsberg. Allen began his career writing for televi...

Altman, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Altman, Robert, 1925–2006, American film director, b. Kansas City, Mo. One of the most original talents in late-20th-century American filmmaking, he created complex, often loosely plotted movies mar...

Case Western Reserve University

(Encyclopedia)Case Western Reserve University, at Cleveland; coeducational; est. 1967 through the merger of the Case Institute of Technology (chartered 1880, opened 1881) and Western Reserve Univ. (chartered and op...

Western Federation of Miners

(Encyclopedia)Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a radical labor union that organized the miners and smelter workers of the Rocky Mountain states. Created in 1893 by the merger of several local miners' unions, the...