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Lee, Harper

(Encyclopedia)Lee, Harper (Nelle Harper Lee), 1926–2016, American novelist, b. Monroeville, Ala. A member of an old Southern family and related to Robert E. Lee, she was a lifelong friend of Truman Capote. Lee at...

Frank, Leonhard

(Encyclopedia)Frank, Leonhard lāˈônhärt frängk [key], 1882–1961, German expressionist writer. He gained acclaim with his first novel, The Robber Band (1914, tr. 1928), and it was followed by such works as Th...

Gutzkow, Karl Ferdinand

(Encyclopedia)Gutzkow, Karl Ferdinand kärl fĕrˈdēnänt go͝otsˈkō [key], 1811–78, German writer. He entered journalism in 1831 and became a leader of the antiromantic and nationally conscious literary movem...

Kuprin, Aleksandr Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Kuprin, Aleksandr Ivanovich əlyĭksänˈdər ēväˈnəvĭch ko͞oˈprĭn [key], 1870–1938, Russian novelist and short-story writer. Kuprin was an army officer for several years before he resigned ...

Thóroddsen, Jón

(Encyclopedia)Thóroddsen, Jón yōn tōˈrôtsĕn [key], 1818–68, Icelandic novelist and poet. He studied law in Copenhagen intermittently from 1841 to 1850, fought in the Danish army, and after his return to Ic...

Wister, Owen

(Encyclopedia)Wister, Owen wĭsˈtər [key], 1860–1938, American author, b. Philadelphia, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1882; LL.B., 1888). Trips to the West for his health gave him material for his short stories and for ...

Yacine, Kateb

(Encyclopedia)Yacine, Kateb käˈtāb yäˈsēn [key], 1929–89, Algerian author. In 1945 he moved to Paris and afterward traveled in Europe and Asia. His most famous work is the novel Nedjma (1957, tr. 1961, new ...

Eco, Umberto

(Encyclopedia)Eco, Umberto əmbĕrˈtō ĕcō [key], 1932–2016, Italian novelist, essayist, and semiotics scholar. His first novel, the best-selling Il nome della rosa (1980; tr. The Name of the Rose, 1983, film ...

West, Nathanael

(Encyclopedia)West, Nathanael, 1903–40, American novelist, whose real name was Nathan Weinstein, b. New York City, grad. Brown Univ., 1924. An innovative, highly original author, West revealed the sterility and g...

Wolf, Christa

(Encyclopedia)Wolf, Christa krēsˈtä vôlf [key], 1929–2011, German novelist. After attending the universities of Jena and Leipzig, she worked as an editor of literary journals. A committed communist in her ear...