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Kosinski, Jerzy

(Encyclopedia)Kosinski, Jerzy jrˈzē kəzĭnˈskē [key], 1933–91, American writer, b. Łódź, Poland. He taught at the Univ. of Łódź before emigrating to the United States in 1957. In his best-known novel, ...

Patchett, Ann

(Encyclopedia)Patchett, Ann, 1963–, American author, b. Los Angeles, B.A. Sarah Lawrence College, 1984, M.F.A Univ. of Iowa, 1987. In her twenties she was a writer at Seventeen magazine, wrote freelance essays fo...

Reade, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Reade, Charles, 1814–84, English novelist and dramatist. He is noted for his historical romance The Cloister and the Hearth. After being elected a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, he was called t...

Aidoo, Ama Ata

(Encyclopedia)Aidoo, Ama Ata ämˈä ätäˈä īˈdo͞o [key] (Christina Ama Ata Aidoo), 1942–, Ghanaian author, poet, and playwright, grad. Univ. of Ghana (B.A., 1964). Combining traditional African storytellin...

Houellebecq, Michel

(Encyclopedia)Houellebecq, Michel mēshĕlˈ wĕlˈbĕk [key], b. 1958– or 1956–, French author, perhaps France's best-known contemporary novelist, b. Réunion as Michel Thomas. A literary pessimist and master ...

Moravia, Alberto

(Encyclopedia)Moravia, Alberto älbĕrˈtō mōräˈvyä [key], 1907–90, Italian novelist, b. Alberto Pincherle; husband of Elsa Morante. Moravia is considered one of the foremost 20th-century Italian novelists. ...

Dixon, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Dixon, Thomas, 1864–1946, American novelist, b. Shelby, N.C., grad. Wake Forest College. A militant Southerner, he is best known for his novel The Clansman (1905), on which D. W. Griffith's movie Th...

Feith, Rhijnvis

(Encyclopedia)Feith, Rhijnvis rīnˈvĭs fīt [key], 1753–1824, Dutch romantic poet, novelist, and dramatist. His principal works are the long poem on eternity Het Graf (1792) and the sentimental novel Julia (178...

Narezhny, Vasily Trofimovich

(Encyclopedia)Narezhny, Vasily Trofimovich vəsēˈlyē trəfēˈməvĭch nərĕzhˈnē [key], 1780–1825, Russian novelist. He was an important forerunner of Gogol in his realistic descriptions of Ukrainian and C...

Morton, Sarah Wentworth

(Encyclopedia)Morton, Sarah Wentworth, 1759–1846, American author, b. Boston. Under her pseudonym, Philenia, she wrote such works as Ouâbi: Or the Virtues of Nature (1790), a sentimental Native American romance....