|
Jane Austen
Jane Austen , 1775-1817, English novelist. The daughter of a clergyman, she spent the first 25 years of her life at "Steventon," her father's Hampshire vicarage. Here her first novels, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey, were written, although they were not pu...
Read more
|
|
superstition
superstition an irrational belief or practice resulting from ignorance or fear of the unknown. The validity of superstitions is based on belief in the power of magic and witchcraft and in such invisible forces as spirits and demons. A common superstition in the Middle Ages was that the devil could ...
Read more
|
|
Kerouac, Jack 1922-1969
KEROUAC, JACK 1922-1969
BE at novelist
The Right Time
Jack Kerouac was a writer who earned his place in cultural history because of timing more than literary merit. In his books, most notably On the Road (1957), he expresses the spirit of the 1950s for an audience aimlessly seeking a suita...
Read more
|
|
|
Carrie Jacobs Bond
Carrie Jacobs Bond 1862-1946, American songwriter, b. Janesville, Wis. A self-taught musician, she composed about 175 songs, both words and music, gave concerts of them, and even published them herself. Eventually the popularity of such songs as I Love You Truly, Just a-Wearyin' for You, and A P...
Read more
|
|
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello , 1867-1936, Italian author, b. Sicily. One of the great figures in 20th-century European theater, Pirandello was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature. After an extensive education, he began in the 1890s to write poetry and short stories, many of which reflect his interest in ...
Read more
|
|
|
Alice Adams
Alice Adams 1926-99, American novelist, b. Fredericksburg, Va. Her deftly wry and witty fiction concerns 20th-century domestic and professional life, and usually concentrates on the lives of women in various stages of transition. Adams wrote a total of 11 novels, including Careless Love (1966), ...
Read more
|
|
|
Miranda v. Arizona
Miranda v. Arizona U.S. Supreme Court case (1966) in the area of due process of law (see Fourteenth Amendment ). The decision reversed an Arizona court's conviction of Ernesto Miranda on kidnapping and rape charges. Identified in a police lineup, Miranda had been questioned, had confessed, and had...
Read more
|
|
|
parody
parody mocking imitation in verse or prose of a literary work. The following poem by Robert Southey was parodied by Lewis Carroll:
"You are old, Father William," the young man cried;
"The few locks which are left you are gray;
You are hale, Father William—a hearty old...
Read more
|
|
|
Ian Lancaster Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming 1908-64, English spy novelist, b. London. Son of a Conservative member of Parliament, Fleming was educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and Munich and Geneva universities and worked as Reuters' Moscow correspondent (1929-33), a stockbroker (1935-39), a British naval intelligence offici...
Read more
|
|
Dame Maggie Smith
Dame Maggie Smith (Dame Margaret Natalie Cross), 1934-, English actress. Smith first appeared on stage in Twelfth Night (1952). With her precise, sometimes rapid-fire, articulation and her meticulous stagecraft, she is adept at both comedic and serious roles. Smith worked with the Old Vic Compa...
Read more
|
