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McNamara, Robert Strange

(Encyclopedia)McNamara, Robert Strange măkˈnəmârˌə [key], 1916–2009, U.S. secretary of defense (1961–68), b. San Francisco, grad Univ. of California, Berkeley (B.A., 1937), Harvard (M.B.A., 1939). He taug...

Dessoir, Max

(Encyclopedia)Dessoir, Max mäx dĕswär,ˈ [key], 1867–1947, German philosopher. He earned doctorates from the universities of Berlin (philosophy, 1889) and Würtzburg (medicine, 1892). He was a professor at Ber...

Amadis of Gaul

(Encyclopedia)Amadis of Gaul ämädēsˈ də gōl [key], famous prose romance of chivalry, first composed in Spain or Portugal and probably based on French sources. Entirely fictional, it dates from the 13th or 14t...

Kleist, Heinrich von

(Encyclopedia)Kleist, Heinrich von hīnˈrĭkh fən klīst [key], 1777–1811, German dramatic poet. He is one of the most evocative and disturbing of the German Romantic writers. Kleist served (1792–99) in the P...

Bogan, Louise

(Encyclopedia)Bogan, Louise bōˈgən [key], 1897–1970, American poet and critic, b. Livermore, Maine. She spent much of her life in New York City and was for many years poetry editor for the New Yorker. Her vers...

Acosta, Uriel

(Encyclopedia)Acosta, Uriel dä kōˈstä [key], c.1585–1640, Jewish rationalist, b. Oporto, Portugal. His original name was Gabriel da Costa, and his family had been converted to Roman Catholicism. When he reach...

chorus, in Greek drama

(Encyclopedia)chorus, in the drama of ancient Greece. Originally the chorus seems to have arisen from the singing of the dithyramb, and the dithyrambic chorus allegedly became a true dramatic chorus when Thespis in...

Anouilh, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Anouilh, Jean zhäN änwēˈyə [key], 1910–87, French dramatist. Anouilh's many popular plays range from tragedy to sophisticated comedy. His first play, L'hermine, was published in 1932. During th...

Büchner, Georg

(Encyclopedia)Büchner, Georg gāˈôrk bükhˈnər [key], 1813–37, German dramatist. He was a student of medicine and a political agitator. He died at the age of 24, leaving a powerful drama, Danton's Death (183...

Rymer, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Rymer, Thomas rīˈmər [key], 1643?–1713, English critic and historiographer. Educated at Cambridge and Gray's Inn, he was called to the bar in 1673 but turned his efforts instead to literature, es...