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Reyes, Alfonso

(Encyclopedia)Reyes, Alfonso älfônˈsō rāˈyĕs [key], 1889–1959, Mexican writer, diplomat, and educator. Reyes is generally recognized as one of the greatest Spanish-American writers of his time. After spend...

Ransom, John Crowe

(Encyclopedia)Ransom, John Crowe, 1888–1974, American poet and critic, b. Pulaski, Tenn., grad. Vanderbilt Univ. and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is considered one of the great stylists of 20th-centu...

Nâzım Hikmet

(Encyclopedia)Nâzım Hikmet (Nâzım Hikmet Ran) näzĭmˈ hēkmĕtˈ rän [key], 1902–63, widely recognized as Turkey's foremost modern poet, b. Salonika, Ottoman Empire (now Thessaloníki, Greece), grad. Mosco...

Basho

(Encyclopedia)Basho (Matsuo Basho) mätˈso͞oō bäˈshō [key], 1644–94, Japanese poet, critic, and essayist of the early Edo period. His literary name, Basho, is derived from the plantain trees [basho] near a ...

Cabral de Melo Neto, João

(Encyclopedia)Cabral de Melo Neto, João dĭ māˈlü nāˈtü [key], 1920–99, Brazilian poet and dramatist. Raised on his family's sugarcane plantation, he entered the foreign service in 1945 and retired in 1990...

Bly, Robert Elwood

(Encyclopedia)Bly, Robert Elwood, 1926–2021, American writer, translator, editor, and publisher, b. Lac qui Parle County, Mn., Harvard (B.A., 1950), Univ. of Iowa (...

Letteris, Meir ha-Levi

(Encyclopedia)Letteris, Meir ha-Levi mīr hä-lāˈvē lĕtârˈĭs [key], 1800–1871, Austrian-Jewish poet. He wrote about 30 volumes of prose and poetry. The poem called “Yonah Homiyah” [the plaintive dove] ...

Manrique, Jorge

(Encyclopedia)Manrique, Jorge hôrˈhā mänrēˈkā [key], c.1440–1479, Spanish poet and soldier. Most of his verse is undistinguished, but his Coplas [couplets], on his father's death, are among the treasures o...

John II, Spanish king of Castile and León

(Encyclopedia)John II, 1405–54, Spanish king of Castile and León (1406–54), son and successor of Henry III. He was little interested in government, which he entrusted to his favorite Alvaro de Luna. Literature...

Godfrey, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Godfrey, Thomas, 1736–63, American poet and playwright, b. Philadelphia. The son of Thomas Godfrey, who invented the quadrant, he became apprenticed to a watchmaker after his father's early death. G...