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Heller, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Heller, Walter, 1915–87, American economist, b. Buffalo, N.Y., grad. Oberlin College (A.B., 1935), Univ. of Wisconsin (M.A. 1938, Ph.D. 1941). He worked for the U.S. Treasury before joining the Univ...

Heller, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Heller, Joseph, 1923–99, American writer, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. Heller is best known for his first novel, Catch-22 (1961). Set in World War II, it is a darkly humorous commentary on the illogic of war a...

Heller, Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Heller, Stephen shtĕfˈən [key], 1814–88, French pianist and composer, b. Budapest. Heller toured as a piano virtuoso, ruining his health before settling in Paris in 1838. There he developed close...

Brandeis University

(Encyclopedia)Brandeis University, at Waltham, Mass.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1948. Although Brandeis was founded by members of the American Jewish community, the university operates as an independent, ...

anti-hero

(Encyclopedia)anti-hero, principal character of a modern literary or dramatic work who lacks the attributes of the traditional protagonist or hero. The anti-hero's lack of courage, honesty, or grace, his weaknesses...

Kafka, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Kafka, Franz fränts käfˈkä [key], 1883–1924, German-language novelist, b. Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. From a middle-class Jewish fami...

Pynchon, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Pynchon, Thomas pĭnˈchən [key], 1937–, American novelist, b. Glen Cove, N.Y., grad. Cornell, 1958. Pynchon is noted for his amazingly fertile imagination, his wild sense of humor, and the teeming...

black humor

(Encyclopedia)black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usu...

Walter, Bruno

(Encyclopedia)Walter, Bruno, 1876–1962, German-American conductor, b. Berlin as Bruno Walter Schlesinger. Walter studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. After he had conducted in several German cities, Gusta...
 

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