Pliny the Younger: The composition of these litterae curiosius scriptae (“letters written with special care”) was a fashion among the wealthy, and Pliny developed it into a miniature art form.

Conrad Busken Huet: …writings in 25 volumes entitled Litterarische fantasiën en kritieken (1868–88; “Literary Fantasies and Criticisms”). They are still read with enjoyment for their style and acute perception. His history of Dutch culture in the 17th century, Het land van Rembrandt (1882–84; “The Country of Rembrandt”), remains a classic.

author, one who is the source of some form of intellectual or creative work; especially, one who composes a book, article, poem, play, or other literary work intended for publication. Usually a distinction is made between an author and others (such as a compiler, an editor, or a translator) who

André Breton: …Soupault, he cofounded the review Littérature; in its pages, Breton and Soupault published “Les Champs magnétiques” (1920; “Magnetic Fields”), the first example of the Surrealist technique of automatic writing. In 1924 Breton’s Manifeste du surréalisme defined Surrealism as “pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express…the real process…

children’s literature: Overview: … tolled the passing bell in La littérature enfantine en France dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle (Paris; Les Presses Universitaires de France): “Children’s literature, more’s the pity, is dying.” And in 1937, in their introduction to Beaux livres, belles histoires, the compilers Marguerite Gruny and Mathilde Leriche wrote: “Children’s…

littérature engagée, (French: “engaged literature”), literature of commitment, popularized in the immediate post-World War II era, when the French existentialists, particularly Jean-Paul Sartre, revived the idea of the artist’s serious responsibility to society. The idea is an application to art of

Astrid Lindgren: The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, given for adolescent and children’s literature, was established in 2002.

Third Cinema: …such as Chilean film director Miguel Littin’s La tierra prometida (1973; The Promised Land), place production in the hands of the people (instead of local elites) and use film as an ideological tool.

Issa Rae: Acting roles: …adult novel by Angie Thomas; Little (2019), a comedy in which Rae played an assistant to an unreasonable boss (played by Regina Hall); The Photograph (2020), a romance also starring LaKeith Stanfield; and The Lovebirds (2020), an action-comedy wherein she and actor Kumail Nanjiani played a couple caught in a…

Lake Tana: …the Blue Nile is the Little Abbay, which rises south of the lake near Mount Amedamit; it is the longest (about 85 miles [135 km]) of the lake’s 60 tributaries.

Little Alfold, extensive basin occupying the northwestern part of Transdanubia in northwestern Hungary, and extending into Austria and Slovakia (where it is called Podunajská Lowland). It has an area of approximately 3,000 square miles (8,000 square km). It is bounded on the south and east by the

Little America, principal American base in Antarctica, lying on the northeastern edge of Ross Ice Shelf near Kainan Bay. First set up in 1928 as the headquarters for the polar explorations of Richard E. Byrd, it was reused and enlarged by Byrd on his return expedition in 1933–35. In 1940 Byrd

Richard E. Byrd: Byrd’s accomplishments: Little America (1930) is an official account of his aerial exploration in the Antarctic and his flight to the South Pole, and Alone (1938) describes his experiences at Bolling Advance Base. Byrd was extremely competent in public relations, and his expeditions were surrounded by a…

Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Land: Little Andaman in the south is separated from the Nicobar Islands by the Ten Degree Channel, which is about 90 miles (145 km) wide.

Mary Pickford: … (1920), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1921), Little Annie Rooney (1925), My Best Girl (1927), Coquette (1929; her first talking picture), The Taming of the Shrew (1929; her only film with Fairbanks), and Kiki (1931). Although she won an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in Coquette, Pickford’s popularity began…

anomalure: The little anomalure (A. pusillus) is about half the size of Pel’s and has a proportionally shorter tail. The pygmy anomalures (I. macrotis and I. zenkeri) are smaller still, ranging from 7 to 10 cm in body length, not including their long tails (9 to 13…

Little Anthony and the Imperials, American rhythm-and-blues vocal group whose career straddled the eras of doo-wop and soul music. The Imperials were formed in New York City in 1958 as a new incarnation of a short-lived group called the Chesters. The vocal combo’s original members were Jerome

apocalyptic literature: In Christianity: The so-called Little Apocalypse, a sermon by Jesus found in Matthew (24–25) with parallels in Mark (13) and Luke (21), foretells the imminence of collective tribulation and chastisement before the coming of the “Son of Man” who will “sit upon the throne of his glory” and separate…

Mount Ararat: Little Ararat, or Küçük Ağrı Dağı, rises in a smooth, steep, nearly perfect cone to 12,782 feet (3,896 metres). Both Great and Little Ararat are the product of eruptive volcanic activity. Neither retains any evidence of a crater, but well-formed cones and fissures exist on…

Little Armenia, kingdom established in Cilicia, on the southeast coast of Anatolia, by the Armenian Rubenid dynasty in the 12th century. The Rubenids ruled first as barons and then, from 1199 to 1226, as kings of Cilicia. Thereafter the family of Oshin, another Armenian noble, ruled as the Hethumid

dovekie, small, black and white seabird of the North Atlantic. The dovekie belongs to the family Alcidae (order Charadriiformes). It is about 20 centimetres (8 inches) long, with a short bill. Its legs and wings are short, and its feet are webbed. It is a proficient diver, feeding on fish,

barrel cactus: The 19 species of Sclerocactus, which are sometimes called little barrels, have at least one hooked central spine. (All cacti with such curved spines may be called fishhook cacti, including some species of Ferocactus.) The flowers are mainly pink, yellow, and cream. The Mojave fishhook cactus (S. polyancistrus) is…

Little Barrier Island, island in the northern end of Hauraki Gulf, eastern North Island, New Zealand, lying 15 miles (24 km) across Jellicoe Channel from the mainland. Cradock Channel separates it from Great Barrier Island to the east. Of volcanic origin, the island has a total land area of 11

Ursa Minor, in astronomy, a constellation of the northern sky, at about 15 hours right ascension and 80° north declination, and seven of whose stars outline the Little Dipper. Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris), at the end of the Little Dipper’s handle, marks (roughly) the position of the north

coraciiform: Relationships with other species: In southern Africa, the little bee-eater (Melittophagus pusillus) sometimes makes its nest burrow in the wall of the very much larger burrow of the aardvark (Orycteropus afer), and there is no further relationship between the bird and the mammal.

Little Belt, strait between mainland Denmark (west) and Funen and Ærø islands (east). About 30 miles (48 km) long and 0.5 mile (0.8 km) wide, it is the connection between the Kattegat (an arm of the North Sea) and the Baltic Sea. The strait is deep (50–150 feet [15–45 metres]) but difficult for

Little Belt Mountains, segment of the northern Rocky Mountains, central Montana, U.S. The Little Belts extend southward for 40 miles (64 km) from southeast of Great Falls to the Musselshell River. The range, which lies east of the Big Belt Mountains, is characterized by lush timber forests and

Jim Davis: …in dozens of westerns, including Little Big Horn (1951) and The Big Sky (1952).

Arthur Penn: Films and plays of the 1970s: The revisionist western Little Big Man (1970) proved to be another directorial tour de force for Penn. Equal parts of burlesque and tragedy, this reimagining of Thomas Berger’s picaresque novel not only depicted American frontier policy as brutal and genocidal but also acted as a parable of U.S.…

Thomas Berger: …Berger’s most popular novel was Little Big Man (1964; film 1970), in which the narrator, the 111-year-old Jack Crabb—who claims to be the only white survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn—tells his life story. The Return of Little Big Man (1999) is purportedly Crabb’s long-lost addendum to…

Battle of the Little Bighorn: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (1946) and Indian Memorial (2003) commemorate the battle.

Battle of the Little Bighorn, (June 25, 1876), battle at the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, U.S., between federal troops led by Lieut. Col. George A. Custer and Northern Plains Indians (Lakota [Teton or Western Sioux] and Northern Cheyenne) led by Sitting Bull. Custer and all the men

Jonas Brothers: …phenomenon with the release of A Little Bit Longer, which featured many songs written by Nick. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and that year the brothers undertook their own tour, which was filmed for the documentary Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience (2009). In…

Coco Chanel: …costume jewelry, and the “little black dress.” She also was known for the iconic perfume Chanel No. 5.

tapir: bairdii), the little black, or Kobomani, tapir (T. kabomani), and the South American lowland tapir (T. terrestris). This geographic distribution, with four species in Central and South America and one in Southeast Asia, is peculiar. Fossil remains from Europe, China, and North America show that tapirs were once widespread, but…

heron: …and South America, and the little blue heron (E. caerulea). The green heron (Butorides virescens), a small green and brown bird widespread in North America, is notable for its habit of dropping bait on the surface of the water in order to attract fish.

blue penguin, (Eudyptula minor), species of penguin (order Sphenisciformes) characterized by its diminutive stature and pale blue to dark gray plumage. It is the smallest of all known penguin species, and it is the only species of the genus Eudyptula. There are, however, six subspecies: E. minor

pochard: …the wing tip; in the lesser scaup (A. affinis), the wing stripe is about half as long. Scaups gather in huge flocks offshore in winter and dive for shellfish (hence scaup, from scallop).

bluestem: Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium, formerly A. scoparius), is 0.5–1.5 metres (1.6–5 feet) tall and is found in dry prairie areas of North America. Silver beardgrass, or silver bluestem (Bothriochloa saccharoides, formerly A. saccharoides), reaches 0.6 to 1.3 metres (about 2 to 4 feet) in height…

children’s literature: From T.W. to Alice (1712?–1865): …tiny 12-page, undated book called A Little Book for Little Children by “T.W.” appeared. It is instructional but, as the critic Percy Muir says, important as the earliest publication in English “to approach the problem from the point of view of the child rather than the adult.” In sum, without…

Heinrich Suso: …is considered to be his Little Book of Eternal Wisdom (c. 1328), which subsequently became possibly the most popular religious treatise until Thomas à Kempis’ (died 1471) influential Imitatio Christi. Although containing some mystical topics and theological reflections, Eternal Wisdom is essentially a practical work written in simple language.

Eugene Field: A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), drawn in part from his column, included poems in Pike county dialect after the manner of Bret Harte and John Hay, verses for children in an affected Old English dialect, translations of Horace, and the well-known “Little Boy…

John Bowen: Little Boxes (1968) consisted of two one-acts, the first about aging vaudevillians and the second about the attempts of a young lesbian couple to conceal their affair. The Disorderly Women (1969) was a modernization of Euripides’ Bacchae. The Corsican Brothers (1970) was based on the…

nuclear weapon: The weapons are used: …untested uranium-235 gun-assembly bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, was airburst 580 meters (1,900 feet) above the city to maximize destruction; it was later estimated to yield 15 kilotons. Two-thirds of the city area was destroyed. The population present at the time was estimated at 350,000; of these, 140,000 died by the…

Lawrence Ferlinghetti: …Ferlinghetti published the autobiographical novel Little Boy (2019).

Takashi Murakami: …he curated the exhibition “Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture.” Featuring the work of young Japanese artists, the show examined the otaku (“geek”) movement propelling anime and manga—two industries at the heart of Japanese popular culture. Also in 2005 Murakami displayed his monumental sculpture Tongari-Kun—Mr. Pointy &…

lighthouse: The beginning of the modern era: …was on the island of Little Brewster, also off Boston. By 1820 there were an estimated 250 major lighthouses in the world.

David Walliams: …they adapted their radio show, Little Britain, to television in 2003. In a series of sketches, the two played eccentric, sometimes grotesque characters living in all parts of Great Britain. The show could be coarse and controversial at times, but it was enormously popular, gaining a wide audience and introducing…

Pete Desjardins was a Canadian-born American diver who won a silver medal in the springboard at the 1924 Olympics in Paris and gold medals in the springboard and platform events at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, an achievement that was not matched by a male diver until Greg Louganis won both events

Pete Desjardins was a Canadian-born American diver who won a silver medal in the springboard at the 1924 Olympics in Paris and gold medals in the springboard and platform events at the 1928 Games in Amsterdam, an achievement that was not matched by a male diver until Greg Louganis won both events

Little Brothers of Jesus and Little Sisters of Jesus, Roman Catholic religious congregations inspired by the example of Charles-Eugène de Foucauld, a French military officer and explorer who experienced a religious conversion in 1886, while serving in Morocco. He later lived as a hermit among the

Marist Brother, a Roman Catholic congregation of teaching brothers founded near Lyon, Fr., on Jan. 2, 1817, by Marcellin Champagnat for the Christian education of French youth. In 1836 several brothers accompanied the first Marist Fathers to the mission field of the South Pacific islands. Since

brown bat: …80 species, among them the little brown bat (M. lucifugus) of North America and the large mouse-eared bat (M. myotis) of Europe. Members of the genus are about 3.5–8 cm (about 1.4–3.1 inches) long without the 4–6-cm (1.6–2.4-inch) tail and weigh about 5–45 grams (0.2–1.6 ounces). Apart from humans, they…

Charles City: …(16 km) southeast, is the Little Brown Church in the Vale (1864), where many couples are wed each year; it was made famous (1857) by William Savage Pitts in his song “The Church in the Wildwood.” Inc. 1869. Pop. (2000) 7,812; (2010) 7,652.

Delaware: Since 1946 the Little Brown Jug, an annual harness-racing classic, has been held in September at the Delaware County Fair. Inc. town, 1815; city, 1903. Pop. (2000) 25,243; (2010) 34,753.

bustard: The little bustard (Otis tetrax) ranges from western Europe and Morocco to Afghanistan. The bustards of South Africa are known as paauw, the largest being the great paauw or kori bustard (Ardeotis kori). The Arabian bustard (A. arabs) is found in Morocco and in northern tropical…

Little Caesar, American gangster film, released in 1931, considered a classic of the genre. (Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.) In a critically acclaimed performance, Edward G. Robinson plays Rico Bandello, a petty crook who ultimately schemes his way to the top of a

Lesser Caucasus, range of folded mountains in the southern part of the Caucasus region, connected with the main Caucasus Mountains by means of the Likhsky Mountains, which form the divide between the basins of the Rioni and Kura rivers. The range covers portions of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Cayman Islands: …the islands of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac, situated about 180 miles (290 km) northwest of Jamaica. The islands are the outcroppings of a submarine mountain range that extends northeastward from Belize to Cuba. The capital is George Town, on Grand Cayman.

Abe Attell was an American professional boxer, undisputed world featherweight champion from 1906 through 1912. Attell was from a poor Jewish family and began his boxing career at 15 as a means of supplementing the family’s income. (Read Gene Tunney’s 1929 Britannica essay on boxing.) In his first

Alan Rickman: …he directed the period romance A Little Chaos, in which he reunited with his Sense and Sensibility love interest, Kate Winslet.

pika, (genus Ochotona), small short-legged and virtually tailless egg-shaped mammal found in the mountains of western North America and much of Asia. Despite their small size, body shape, and round ears, pikas are not rodents but the smallest representatives of the lagomorphs, a group otherwise

Kate Winslet: In Little Children (2006) she appeared as a housewife whose frustration with the tedium of her suburban existence results in an adulterous affair. Winslet earned her fifth Academy Award nomination for that performance; she was the youngest actress to have received that many nominations. She turned…

medieval warm period (MWP), brief climatic interval that is hypothesized to have occurred from approximately 900 ce to 1300 (roughly coinciding with the Middle Ages in Europe), in which relatively warm conditions are said to have prevailed in various parts of the world, though predominantly in the

spike moss, (family Selaginellaceae), family of more than 700 species of mossy or fernlike seedless vascular plants of the order Selaginellales. The family consists of a single genus, Selaginella. They are widely distributed in all parts of the world, particularly in the tropics. Many are forest

David Butler: …guide her to stardom with The Little Colonel (1935), The Littlest Rebel (1935), and Captain January (1936). The hugely successful comedies helped establish Temple as Hollywood’s top box-office attraction. Butler’s later movies for Twentieth Century-Fox included Pigskin Parade (1936); Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937), a clever musical featuring Eddie

Arizona: Drainage: The Little Colorado River—which drains the Mogollon Rim’s lee side and flows from southeast to northwest into the Colorado River between Marble Canyon and the Grand Canyon—draws and transports little water from its large watershed. Because of the rain shadow effect on the Mogollon Rim’s lee…

Napoleon I was a French general, first consul (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West. He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes;

crake: …to the Philippines; and the little crake (P. parva), a relatively common Eurasian form.

Talking Heads: Little Creatures (1985) returned the group to a simpler sound and became its first million-seller. Talking Heads’ final album was 1988’s Naked. The group then ceased to exist, its farewell unannounced.

Randy Newman: …biggest hits, “Short People” from Little Criminals (1977) and “I Love L.A.” from Trouble in Paradise (1983), was lost on many listeners. Land of Dreams (1988) was Newman’s most personal album; in 1995 he released Faust, a concept album based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust. The boxed set Guilty:…

Aleijadinho was a prolific and influential Brazilian sculptor and architect whose Rococo statuary and religious articles complement the dramatic sobriety of his churches. Aleijadinho, the son of the Portuguese architect Manoel Francisco Lisboa and an African woman, was born with a degenerative

Sioux: The beginning of the struggle for the West: …under the leadership of Chief Little Crow mounted a bloody attempt to clear their traditional territory of outsiders. U.S. troops soon pacified the region, but only after more than 400 settlers, 70 U.S. soldiers, and 30 Santee had been killed. More than 300 Santee were condemned to death for their…

the Cumbraes: Little Cumbrae measures 1 square mile (2.6 square km) and is separated from its larger neighbour by the Tan, a strait 0.5 mile (0.9 km) wide. It reaches an elevation of 406 feet (124 metres). Nearly all of the population of the two islands lives…

Edgar Degas: A versatile technician: …the tantalizingly lifelike wax sculpture, Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1878–81). Shown at the Impressionist exhibition of 1881, this work carried the possibilities of visual realism to new extremes by incorporating an actual reduced-scale tutu, ballet slippers, a human-hair wig, and a silk ribbon.

Tatum O’Neal: O’Neal’s subsequent movies included Little Darlings (1980), in which she costarred with Kristy McNichol; the biopic Basquiat (1996); and The Scoundrel’s Wife (2002). During much of the time from the mid-1980s, however, O’Neal was better known for her troubled marriage to tennis star John McEnroe and for her struggles…

Danny DeVito: Career: …Devil in the animated sitcom Little Demon (2022).

Victoria: Drainage and soils: Similarly, the Little Desert, which straddles the state’s western boundary just to the south of the Big Desert, consists of deep sands, deficient in zinc and copper, that render the land unsuitable for settlement. Otherwise, the light soils of the Mallee are easily cultivated, and the development…

the Beach Boys: , “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around,” and “Don’t Worry Baby”).

Diomede Islands, two small islands in the Bering Strait, lying about 2.5 miles (4 km) apart and separated by the U.S.–Russian boundary, which coincides with the International Date Line. The larger island, Big Diomede (Russian: Ostrov Ratmanova [Ratmanov Island]), has an area of 4 square miles (10

cerebral palsy: …the arms and hands (Little diplegia), or only the legs may be affected (paraplegia). The cerebral damage causing spastic cerebral palsy primarily affects the neurons and connections of the cerebral cortex, either of one cerebral hemisphere (contralateral to paralysis), as in infantile hemiplegia, or of both hemispheres, as in…

The Little Dipper, constellation of seven stars of the larger constellation Ursa Minor

Grace Paley: …first volume of short stories, The Little Disturbances of Man: Stories of Men and Women at Love (1959), was noted for its realistic dialogue. It was followed by Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) and Later the Same Day (1985), both of which continued her compassionate, often comic, exploration…

Domesday Book: …preserved in volume II (Little Domesday), which, for some reason, was never summarized and added to the larger volume.

Little Dorrit, novel by Charles Dickens, published serially from 1855 to 1857 and in book form in 1857. The novel attacks the injustices of the contemporary English legal system, particularly the institution of debtors’ prison. Amy Dorrit, referred to as Little Dorrit, is born in and lives much of

Alec Guinness: … (1984) and William Dorrit in Little Dorrit (1987). In 1980 he won a special Academy Award for memorable film performances.

John le Carré: In The Little Drummer Girl (1983; film 1984; television miniseries 2018) a young actress is persuaded by the Israeli secret service to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist group. Le Carré’s later novels include A Perfect Spy (1986; miniseries 1987), the story of a double agent; The Russia…

George Roy Hill: Later work: Moviegoers also avoided The Little Drummer Girl (1984), an adaptation of the complicated John le Carré novel. After directing Chevy Chase in the comedy Funny Farm (1988), Hill left Hollywood to teach drama at Yale.

egret: The little egret (E. garzetta), of the Old World, about 55 cm long, is white with firm plumes on the head and lacy plumes on the back.

burlesque show: …with the belly dancing of Little Egypt at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893), established such stars as Ann Corio, Gypsy Rose Lee, Margie Hart, and Georgia Southern. Censorship and “clean-up” policies, and then the competition of motion pictures, led to the decline of burlesque. By the early 1960s…

lousewort: For example, the little elephant (P. groenlandica) presents the aspect of head, trunk, and ears of an elephant in its pink flowers, which are 2.5 cm (1 inch) long.

Emily, fictional character, the childhood playmate and first love of David Copperfield in Charles Dickens’s novel David Copperfield

Little Entente, mutual defense arrangement among Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Romania during the period between World Wars I and II. Based on several treaties (1920–21), it was directed against German and Hungarian domination in the Danube River basin and toward the protection of the members’

epyllion, brief narrative poem in dactylic hexameter of ancient Greece, usually dealing with mythological and romantic themes. It is characterized by lively description, miniaturistic attitude, scholarly allusion, and an elevated tone similar to that of the elegy. Such poems were especially popular

Little Eva, fictional character, the frail, angelic daughter of a Southern slave owner who befriends the black slave Uncle Tom, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1851–52) by Harriet Beecher

Little Eyolf, play in three acts by Henrik Ibsen, published in Norwegian as Lille Eyolf in 1894 and produced the following year. This complex psychological drama is acclaimed for its subtle intricacies and profound ironies. Alfred Allmers returns from his mountain retreat to discover that his

Minnehaha Falls, waterfall in Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis, eastern Minnesota, U.S. It is formed by Minnehaha Creek, which flows to the Mississippi River from Lake Minnetonka. The falls have a drop of 53 feet (16 metres) and were known earlier as Little Falls or Brown’s Falls. They were immortalized

Little Falls, city, seat (1856) of Morrison county, central Minnesota, U.S. It lies on the Mississippi River, in an agricultural and lake area, about 30 miles (50 km) north of St. Cloud. Sioux and Ojibwa Indians were early inhabitants of the area. The community was settled in 1848, and the

Bonnie Raitt: …such as Jackson Browne and Little Feat. Her first three albums largely comprised traditional blues material and introduced Raitt’s supple phrasing, feminist stance, and keen abilities as a slide guitarist. In 1973 she began recording more-polished pop material, culminating in her first hit single, a 1977 reworking of Del Shannon’s…

Celeste Ng: …success with a second novel, Little Fires Everywhere. The book begins with a striking image of a house aflame and then rewinds to examine the relationship between two families: the Richardsons, an affluent white family, and the Warrens, a mother and daughter with a mysterious past. Interlocking subplots converge in…