Abdul Rahaman
(b. c. 1762; d. 6 July 1829),perhaps the most well-known African in America in the 1820s. Ibrahima Abdul Rahaman was born in Timbo, Futa Jallon, Guinea, to King Suri ...
Aboriginal narratives
Narrative means both the story-telling styles in which a sequence of events may be presented, and the form of artistic expression distinct from, say, analysis or exposition. Among Aboriginal ...
Ada Negri
(1870–1945).Poet, novelist, and one of the first significant working-class voices in Italian literature. Brought up in poverty in Milan by a widowed mother, as she describes in her autobiographical ...
African-American Publishing Outlets
When Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm founded the first black newspaper in 1827, a new phase in the struggle for African-American liberation began. The opening editorial of Freedom's Journal ...
Alberto Bevilacqua
(1934– ).Novelist who is also a prolific journalist and cinema director. He achieved widespread popularity with La califfa (1964), which he adapted as his first film in 1966. His numerous ...
Angelo Brofferio
(1802–66).Writer and patriot, born near Asti, who became a politically active journalist in Turin and was elected in 1848 to the Piedmontese parliament, where he consistently opposed Cavour. He ...
Anna Cora Mowatt
[née(1819–70),American author and actress, mainly remembered for her social comedy Fashion (1845), considered to be one of the best of the early satires on American life. It was ...
Antonio Petito
(1822–76).Neapolitan actor who, like his father, became famous as Pulcinella. In spite of being almost illiterate, he wrote several comedies, of which the best known was Palummella, zompa e ...
Antonio Porta
(1935–89)Poet and critic. Born and educated in Milan, he became part of the circle around il verri and then of the Gruppo 63. He and Balestrini were the youngest ...
apology
In the literary sense, a justification or defence of the writer's opinions or conduct, not usually implying (as in the everyday sense) any admission of blame. The major classical precedent is the ...
Audre Lorde
(1934–92), poet.Born in New York City of West Indian parents, Lorde was educated at the National University of Mexico, Hunter College, and Columbia University. The main themes of her ...
AuroraLevins Morales
(b. 1954),Puerto Rican author. Aurora Levins Morales was born in Indiera, Puerto Rico. At the age of thirteen, she moved with her parents to the United States. The family ...
author
1. The title given to the creator of a text in any medium—although traditionally associated with the writer of a literary work.2. The romantic notion of an individual artistic voice that brings unity ...
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Published posthumously, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) was written with the assistance of Alex Haley, and, in all published editions, is accompanied by a long epilogue of Haley's that offers ...
autofiction
A kind of novel or story that is written as a first‐person narrative and that commonly presents itself fictionally as an autobiography of the narrator or as an episode within such an autobiographical ...
Bartolomeo di Castel Della Pieve
(later 14th c.).Umbrian schoolmaster and minor poet. He lived an impoverished wandering life in Lombardy, Emilia, and Tuscany, but was respected as a literary figure. His seventeen surviving poems ...
Beloved
A novel by Toni Morrison (1987), set in 1873 in America. The narrative technique is deliberately non‐linear and complex, the language richly poetic and suffused with biblical references. Sethe, a ...
Benito Mussolini
(1883–1945) Italian Fascist statesman, Prime Minister (1922–43); known as Il Duce ('the leader'). He founded the Italian Fascist Party in 1919. He annexed Abyssinia in 1936 and entered World War ...
Benjamin Franklin
(1706–90)Although Franklin's distinction rests on his work as a scientist and statesman, his homely moral and political philosophy, particularly as expounded in Poor Richard's Almanack (1733–58), has ...
Benvenuto Cellini
(1500–71),Italian goldsmith and sculptor, the most renowned goldsmith of his day. His work is characterized by its elaborate virtuosity. His autobiography is famous for its racy style and its vivid ...
