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Provençal literature

(Encyclopedia)Provençal literature, vernacular literature of S France. Provençal, or Occitan, as the language is now often called, appears to have been the first vernacular tongue used in French commerce and lite...

Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino

(Encyclopedia)Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino märthālēˈnō mānānˈdĕth ē pāläˈyō [key], 1856–1912, Spanish literary historian and critic. His vast contribution to Spanish scholarship includes Historia d...

Lyall, Sir Charles James

(Encyclopedia)Lyall, Sir Charles James līˈəl [key], 1845–1920, British Orientalist and civil servant in India. He held various offices in India and became chief commissioner of the Central Provs. (1895–98). ...

Tommaseo, Niccolò

(Encyclopedia)Tommaseo, Niccolò nēk-kōlôˈ tōm-mäzāˈō [key], 1802–74, Italian poet and critic, b. Sibenik, Dalmatia. In addition to poetry, novels, and literary criticism, he wrote well in history, philo...

Vrchlický, Jaroslav

(Encyclopedia)Vrchlický, Jaroslav yäˈrôsläf vŭrkhˈlĭtskē [key], pseud. of Emil Bohuslav Frída, 1853–1912, Czech writer. Vrchlický, a poetic virtuoso, produced nearly 85 volumes of lyric verse, much of ...

Taggard, Genevieve

(Encyclopedia)Taggard, Genevieve, 1894–1948, American poet, b. Waitsburg, Wash. Her early years were spent in Hawaii. She returned to the United States in 1914, graduated from the Univ. of California in 1919, and...

Watkins, Vernon

(Encyclopedia)Watkins, Vernon, 1906–67, British poet, b. Maesteg, Wales, educated at Cambridge. Like his close friend Dylan Thomas, Watkins was profoundly influenced by his Welsh background. His poetry combines s...

Kunitz, Stanley Jasspon

(Encyclopedia)Kunitz, Stanley Jasspon kyo͞oˈnĭts [key], 1905–2006, American poet, teacher, and editor, b. Worcester, Mass. He graduated from Harvard (B.A., 1926; M.A., 1927), worked as a journalist and editor,...

Ungaretti, Giuseppe

(Encyclopedia)Ungaretti, Giuseppe jo͞ozĕpˈpā o͞ongärĕtˈtē [key], 1888–1970, Italian poet, critic, and translator, b. Alexandria, Egypt. Ungaretti spent his youth in North Africa, where he was greatly inf...

Lindsay, Vachel

(Encyclopedia)Lindsay, Vachel (Nicholas Vachel Lindsay) lĭnˈzē [key], 1879–1931, American poet, b. Springfield, Ill., studied at Hiram College, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the New York School of Art. Li...