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Gable, Clark

(Encyclopedia) Gable, Clark, 1901–60, American film actor, b. Cadiz, Ohio. He began his career in films in 1930 and soon after became a star. He won an Academy Award in 1934 for his brilliant comic…

Bellman, Carl Michael

(Encyclopedia) Bellman, Carl MichaelBellman, Carl Michaelmēˈkäĕl bĕlˈmän [key], 1740–95, Swedish poet; protégé of Gustavus III. His early poetry was chiefly religious. His dithyrambic odes in…

Brice, Fanny

(Encyclopedia) Brice, Fanny or Fannie, 1891–1951, American comedienne, b. New York City as Fanny Borach. Brice appeared in burlesque and vaudeville from 1906. She starred in the Ziegfeld “Follies”…

Bessenyei, György

(Encyclopedia) Bessenyei, GyörgyBessenyei, Györgydyörˈdyə bĕˈshĕnyā [key], 1747–1811, Hungarian dramatist and writer. In Vienna he came in contact with French rationalism and was an ardent follower…

Kaye, Nora

(Encyclopedia) Kaye, Nora (Nora Koreff), 1920–87, American ballerina, b. New York City. Kaye studied with Michel Fokine and Antony Tudor. She joined the Ballet Theatre in 1940 and scored a major…

Herriman, George

(Encyclopedia) Herriman, George, 1880–1944, American cartoonist, b. New Orleans into a prominent mixed-race Creole family. He created the fanciful, abstractly drawn comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–44),…

Jong, Erica

(Encyclopedia) Jong, Erica (Erica Mann Jong)Jong, Ericajông, zhông [key], 1942–, American novelist and poet, b. New York City. She created a sensation with Fear of Flying (1973), a comic, picaresque…

Saint Valentine's Day

(Encyclopedia) Saint Valentine's Day, Western European Christian holiday, originally the Roman feast of Lupercalia. It was christianized in memory of the martyrdom of St. Valentine in a.d. 270, who,…

Pulci, Luigi

(Encyclopedia) Pulci, LuigiPulci, Luigilwēˈjē p&oomacr;lˈchē [key], 1432–84, Italian poet. Of an impoverished literary family, he became a protégé of Lorenzo de' Medici and a friend of Poliziano…

Gotham

(Encyclopedia) GothamGothamgŏthˈəm [key], name for New York City first used by Washington Irving and others in the Salmagundi Papers, with satirical reference to Gotham, England, where the wise men…