Called "the screwball's Boswell" by Fred Allen, H. Allen Smith achieved overnight success as a humorist with the publication of Low Man on a Totem Pole in 1941. Turning out sequels at the rate of nearly one a year, he was rarely off the be...

Known by his friends as "da H. C." (pronounced "hah-tseh") or "da Artmann," H. C. Artmann enjoys great popularity and an ever-growing number of admirers. Unlike most of his colleagues, this self-made poet had little formal education. He ha...

The economist Herbert Cole Coombs (1906-1997) was appointed to a series of public positions which allowed him more influence on the shape of post-war Australia than all except a few prime ministers. Widely respected by all sections of the ...

H. E. Bates was one of the most prolific English writers of his generation. From 1926 to 1972 he published, on average, more than one book of fiction a year as well as many nonfiction and juvenile works. He is best known for the power of h...

The English statesman Herbert Henry Asquith, Ist Earl of Oxford and Asquith (1852-1928), was prime minister of Great Britain from 1908 to 1916. His government sponsored significant social legislation, restricted the power of the House of L...

H. L. Davis is best known for his five novels--Honey in the Horn (1935), Harp of a Thousand Strings (1947), Beulah Land (1949), Winds of Morning (1952), The Distant Music (1957)--and his short stories, but he also wrote poetry, essays, and...

During his lifetime H. L. Mencken was called the Great Iconoclast and the Sage of Baltimore, appellations he gained because of his journalistic writing in newspapers and magazines. However, his contributions to American letters were more e...

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is widely considered the most important literary supernaturalist of the twentieth century. He is one of the greatest in a line of authors that originated with the Gothic novelists of the eighteenth century and w...

A government official, business consultant, and author, H. R. Haldeman gained notoriety for his involvement in the 1972 Watergate scandal--a scheme devised by top-ranked government officials, including President Richard M. Nixon, to cover ...

The Protestant theologian Helmut Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) was one of the most original and perceptive American theologians of the 20th century. On Sept. 3, 1894, H. Richard Niebuhr was born in Wright City, Mo., the youngest of five chil...

H. Robert Horvitz identified the genes that play a significant role in programmed cell death and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); he also discovered a new receptor that responds to serotonin. His pioneering research was performed on th...

The American poet, translator, and novelist Hilda Doolittle (1886-1961), generally called H. D., was an imagist whose lyric art conveys intense feelings through sharp images and "free" forms. Hilda Doolittle was born on Sept. 10, 1886, in ...

Few writers have appeared on the American literary scene to such sudden acclaim as the Chinese émigré Ha Jin. His first short-story collection about life in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Ocean of Words (1996), won the...

Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000) was president of the Tunisian Republic and played a primordial role in leading his country's nationalist struggle for independence. Habib Bourguiba was born on Aug. 3, 1903, at Monastir into a modest family. He ...

Rachel Hadas, a poet, translator, essayist, critic, and professor of literature, grew up in an environment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan contiguous to Columbia University and connected with the generation of New York intellectuals th...

The 1960s and 1970s were a period of destabilization in German literature. Notions of sociopolitical relevance eroded the position of the traditional genres in favor of activist, experimental forms. Even established writers were driven off...

Hafiz Assad (al-'Asad; 1930-2000) took power in Syria in 1970 and became president, a position he retained longer than any other person since Syrian independence in 1946. Hafiz Assad was born on October 6, 1930 into a large, poor peasant f...

In "Om lyrikk" (On Poetry), published in the magazine Kvinnen og tiden (The Woman and the Time) in 1953 and collected in her Østenfor kjærlighet, vestenfor drøm: prosa gjennom 30 år (East of Love, West of Dream: P...

Mary Downing Hahn has taken the old dictum of writing what you know and has turned it into a body of work that encompasses some twenty novels for young teens and young adults. Mining her own childhood as well as that of her parents and chi...

Haile Selassie (1892-1975) was an emperor of Ethiopia whose influence as an African leader far surpassed the confines of his country. Haile Selassie was born on July 23, 1892, the son of Ras Makonnen, a cousin and confidant of Emperor Meni...

The second president after Indonesia's independence, Suharto (born 1921) was a strong anti-Communist who drew Indonesia closer to the West and presided during a period of economic improvement in the country. Notwithstanding, his tenure was...

Don L. Lee was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of Jimmy and Maxine Graves Lee. He attended Dunbar Vocational High School in Chicago, Chicago City College (A.A., 1966), Roosevelt University in Chicago (1966-1967), and the University ...

Hal Foster was one of the pioneers of comic strip illustration. "Conspicuously talented and greatly influential, Foster drew two of the best-looking adventure strips in comics, 'Tarzan' and 'Prince Valiant,'" according to a contributor for...

Frantisek Halas is one of the most important representatives of Czech lyric poetry of the twentieth century. He was a poet, a translator, an essayist concentrating on literature and art, and a journalist writing on cultural matters. His na...

Haldan Keffer Hartline was born on December 22, 1903, in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, to Daniel Schollenberger Hartline and Harriet Franklin Hartline. He attended college at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.S. in...