Harold

Edgerton, Harold, 1903-90, American inventor and educator, b. Fremont, Nebr. He was educated at the Univ. of Nebraska and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (D.Sc., 1931), and taught at the latter as professor of electrical engineering (1928-66), institute professor (1966-68), and institute professor emeritus (1968-90). He is best known for his development and perfection of the stroboscope, which not only has practical engineering applications but also produces breathtaking imagery. Edgerton joined with Jacques Cousteau in underwater exploration, producing the first underwater time-lapse photography (1968) and inventing sonar devices that analyzed the rock of the seabed (1960) and gave a seismic profile of the sea floor (1961). With J. R. Killian, Jr., he wrote Flash! Seeing the Unseen by Ultra High Speed Photography (1939) and Moments of Vision: The Stroboscopic Revolution in Photography (1979).

Wilson, Harold (James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx), 1916-95, British statesman. A graduate of Oxford, he became an economics lecturer there (1937) and a fellow of University College (1938). Wilson entered Parliament (1945) as a Labour member, and as president of the Board of Trade (1947-51) he ended many of the wartime controls on industry. In 1951 he resigned with Aneurin Bevan, opposing the introduction of changes within the National Health Service. He thus became a spokesman for the left-wing of the Labour party, later opposing party leader Hugh Gaitskell's stand against unilateral nuclear disarmament.

After Gaitskell's death (1963), Wilson won the leadership of the party and became prime minister in 1964. At first his government had only a four-seat majority in Parliament, but it was reelected with a large majority in 1966. The Labour government under Wilson sought to offset Britain's diminishing role outside Europe by increasing its role in Europe, and in 1967 it reapplied for membership in the European Community (EC). Wilson also tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with the white supremacist regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which unilaterally declared itself independent of Britain in 1965. Domestically, Wilson imposed strict controls on wages and prices, raised taxes, and devalued (1967) the pound to end the growing economic crisis. By the spring of 1970 the economy seemed to be recovering, and Wilson scheduled a June election, which resulted in an unexpected defeat for the Labour party.

In opposition, Wilson led his party to reverse its stand on entry into the EC, but a significant minority voted with the Conservative government in favor of entry. Another divisive issue arose with the party's espousal (1973) of wide-scale nationalization. Nonetheless, in the general election of Feb., 1974, held at a time of severe economic crisis, Labour was returned to power, and Wilson again became prime minister.

Despite the fact that he headed a minority government (and was therefore very vulnerable to defeat in Parliament), Wilson announced his intention of implementing the controversial policies of renegotiation of the terms of Britain's membership in the EC and nationalization. His government faced continuing economic difficulties as well as a deterioration of the situation in Northern Ireland (which required the reimposition of direct British rule). It was also obliged to mediate between Greece and Turkey in the tense crisis created by the overthrow of Archbishop Makarios III in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion of that island in July, 1974. Wilson called another election in Oct., 1974, and secured a narrow majority in Parliament. In 1975 he called and won an unprecedented referendum on Britain's membership in the EC, largely silencing left-wing Labour critics who favored withdrawal. Wilson unexpectedly resigned in 1976 and was knighted later the same year. The longest serving Labour prime minister, he retained his seat in Commons until he was created a life peer in 1983.

Pinter, Harold, 1930-2008, English dramatist. Born in Hackney in London's East End, the son of an English tailor of Eastern European Jewish ancestry, he studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Central School of Speech and Drama. One of the most important English playwrights of the last half of the 20th cent. and the most influential of his generation, Pinter wrote what have been called "comedies of menace." Using apparently commonplace characters and settings, he invests his plays with an atmosphere of fear, horror, and mystery. The peculiar tension he creates often derives as much from the long silences between speeches as from the often curt, ambiguous, yet vividly vernacular speeches themselves. His austere language is extremely distinctive, as is the ominous unease and sense of imminent violence that it provokes, and he is one of the few writers to have an adjective—Pinteresque—named for him. His plays frequently concern struggles for power in which the issues are obscure and the reasons for defeat and victory undefined. In the course of a career that spanned six decades, Pinter won many prestigious honors, the crowning of which was the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Pinter began his theatrical career as an actor, touring with provincial repertory companies. He continued to act throughout his career, working on stage, in films, and on radio and television. His first produced effort as a playwright, a one-act drama entitled The Room (1957), was followed by such plays as The Birthday Party (1957, film 1967), The Dumb Waiter (1957), A Slight Ache (1958), and The Dwarfs (1960). Pinter adapted several of these and later plays for film. The Caretaker (1959, film 1963) was his first great commercial and critical success and was followed by numerous plays, including The Collection (1961), The Homecoming (1964, film 1969), Landscape (1967), Old Times (1970), No Man's Land (1974), Betrayal (1978, film 1981), A Kind of Alaska (1982), One for the Road (1984), Mountain Language (1988), Moonlight (1993), Ashes to Ashes (1996), Celebration (1999), and Remembrance of Things Past (2000). By and large, Pinter's later dramas, often more overtly political than his previous works, were greeted with less critical acclaim than his earlier plays.

Pinter wrote the screenplays for a number of other highly praised motion pictures as well, among them The Servant (1963), The Pumpkin Eater (1964), Accident (1966), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), and The Handmaid's Tale (1987). His collected screenplays were published in 2000. He also has penned Mac—a Memoir (1969), several volumes of poetry, the novel The Dwarfs (1990), numerous essays, and a miscellany, Various Voices (1999). An active director of his own work and that of other contemporary dramatists, Pinter oversaw the productions of numerous plays as well as several films and television dramas.

A longtime political activist, Pinter was a vigorous and vocal campaigner for human rights, an outspoken opponent of American and British involvement in the Iraq war. In 2005 he announced that he had retired from playwriting in order to focus on politics and his work for peace, but planned to continue writing poetry. He was married to the historian Lady Antonia Fraser.

Harold, 1022?-1066, king of England (1066). The son of Godwin, earl of Wessex, he belonged to the most powerful noble family of England in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Through Godwin's influence Harold was made earl of East Anglia. He went into exile with his father in 1051, returning to help him regain power the next year. His succession (1053) to the earldom of Wessex and to Godwin's great estates made Harold the most powerful figure in England except for the king, and he aspired to become heir to the throne. He gained glory by a successful campaign against the Welsh leader Gruffydd ap Llywelyn in 1062-63. Shortly after this (probably in 1064), Harold was apparently shipwrecked on the coast of Ponthieu and was surrendered by the count of Ponthieu to William, duke of Normandy (later William I of England). Harold then, possibly under coercion, took an oath to support William's candidacy to the English throne. When the Northumbrians revolted (1065) against Harold's brother Tostig and chose Morcar in his place as earl of Northumbria, Harold took Morcar's part. The family was thus divided when Edward the Confessor died (1066), after naming Harold his heir instead of William. Harold was also the choice of the council to be king. William of Normandy immediately undertook an invasion. At the same time, Tostig, with Harold III of Norway, invaded England in the north. Harold went north and soundly defeated them (Sept. 25, 1066) at the battle of Stamford Bridge, in which both Tostig and Harold III were slain. Then the harassed king hurried south to oppose William, who had landed at Pevensey. Harold established his forces in hastily built earthworks near Hastings. They fought valiantly but were finally put to rout, and Harold was killed.

Bauer, Harold, 1873-1951, Anglo-American pianist. He was first a successful violinist, but in 1892 he studied the piano with Paderewski and then earned international recognition as a pianist. He also promoted chamber music and exercised a strong influence on American musical life.

Clurman, Harold, 1901-80, American director, manager, critic, and author, b. New York City. In his early years he acted in minor roles, becoming associated with New York's Group Theatre as founder and managing director in 1931. After his debut as a director with Awake and Sing, he became known for his direction of works by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, and William Inge, among many others. Clurman has written much theater criticism and several books, including The Fervent Years (1945), a history of the Group Theatre.

Bloom, Harold, 1930-, American literary critic and scholar, b. New York City. The son of Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Russia, educated at Cornell (B.A., 1951) and Yale Univ. (Ph.D., 1955), the distinguished critic, author, and academic is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale and Berg Professor of English at New York Univ. He has written more than 20 books and edited or written the introductions for some 400 other volumes. One of his best-known works, The Anxiety of Influence (1973), postulates a titanic Oedipal struggle in which great writers interpret and revolt against their literary fathers, a theme developed in A Map of Misreading (1974), Poetry and Repression (1976), and Agon (1982).

Bloom has also written studies of many individual authors, e.g., Shelley (1959), Blake (1963), Yeats (1970), Wallace Stevens (1977), and Shakespeare (1998). His wide-ranging literary concerns are represented in The Western Canon (1994), in which Bloom analyzes the works of 26 great masters; in How to Read and Why (2000), in which he presents a manual for literary enjoyment and enlightenment; and in Genius (2002), in which he explores the accomplishments of 100 great writers. His interest in religious and scriptural questions is apparent in such works as Ruin the Sacred Truths (1988), The Book of J (1990), in which he posits that a woman wrote part of the biblical Pentateuch, The American Religion (1992), and Jesus and Yahweh (2005). In addition to many academic and literary honors, Bloom was awarded a 1985 MacArthur fellowship.

Arlen, Harold, 1905-86, American jazz and popular composer, b. Buffalo, N.Y., as Hyman Arluck. From the age of seven Arlen sang in the synagogue where his father was cantor, at 15 he left school to play jazz piano, and at 16 he left home. After coming to New York City in 1925, Arlen achieved fame by writing songs for various reviews and for the shows at Harlem's Cotton Club (1930-34). Many of his songs became jazz standards because of their genuine blues feeling and haunting melodies (e.g., "Ill Wind," "Stormy Weather," "Blues in the Night"), and the harmonic richness and melodic inventiveness of his other songs (e.g., "That Old Black Magic," "Get Happy," "One for My Baby") also had their roots in jazz. In 1939, Arlen won an Academy Award for the song "Over the Rainbow" in the film The Wizard of Oz. Among the 29 other films for which he wrote scores are Cabin in the Sky (1943) and A Star Is Born (1954). He also wrote the music for eight Broadway shows, notably House of Flowers (1954).

Monro, Harold, 1879-1932, English poet, b. Belgium. In 1911 he founded the Poetry Review and the following year established the Poetry Bookshop, which became a refuge and intellectual center for poets. His Poetry and Drama (1913), a successor to the Poetry Review, was discontinued during World War I, but Monro reestablished it as Chapbook (1919-25). Both periodicals had great influence on the poetical work of the time. His own work, first published in 1906, includes Children of Love (1914) and Elm Angel (1930).

Lloyd, Harold, 1893-1971, American movie actor, b. Burchard, Kans. Lloyd was famous for his comic portrayals of a wistful innocent with horn-rimmed glasses who blunders in and out of hair-raising situations. His natural style of acting helped to create a believable character that made Lloyd the most popular film comedian of the 1920s. He appeared in over 500 films, including many shorts, spanning both the silent and sound eras; among them were Safety Last (1923), Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), Movie Crazy (1932), and Mad Wednesday (1947).

(born April 29, 1893, Walkerton, Ind., U.S.—died Jan. 5, 1981, La Jolla, Calif.) U.S. scientist. He received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and thereafter taught at various universities. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1934 for discovering deuterium and heavy water. He was a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb; his group worked on the gaseous diffusion process for separation of uranium-235. He devised methods for estimating the temperature of ancient oceans, theorized on the compositions of primordial atmospheres, and studied the relative abundances of the elements, making fundamental contributions to a widely accepted theory of the origin of the Earth and other planets in The Planets, (1952).

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(born May 6, 1915, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died May 15, 1986, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist, historian, and novelist. White became one of Time magazine's first foreign correspondents, serving in East Asia (1939–45) and later as a European correspondent. He is best known for his accounts of two presidential elections, The Making of the President, 1960 (1961, Pulitzer Prize) and The Making of the President, 1964 (1965), and for associating the short-lived presidency of John F. Kennedy with the legend of Camelot. His intimate style of journalism, centring on the personalities of his subjects, strongly influenced the course of political journalism and campaign coverage.

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(born Feb. 28, 1909, London, Eng.—died July 16, 1995, London) English poet and critic. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Spender met the poets W.H. Auden and C. Day-Lewis. In the 1930s they became identified with politically conscious, leftist “new writing.” His poems, expressing a self-critical, compassionate personality, appear in volumes from Poems (1933) to Dolphins (1994). He was better known for his perceptive criticism, as in The Destructive Element (1935), The Making of a Poem (1955), and The Struggle of the Modern (1963), and for his association with the influential review Encounter (1953–67). He also wrote short stories, essays, and autobiography.

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(born Feb. 28, 1909, London, Eng.—died July 16, 1995, London) English poet and critic. While an undergraduate at Oxford, Spender met the poets W.H. Auden and C. Day-Lewis. In the 1930s they became identified with politically conscious, leftist “new writing.” His poems, expressing a self-critical, compassionate personality, appear in volumes from Poems (1933) to Dolphins (1994). He was better known for his perceptive criticism, as in The Destructive Element (1935), The Making of a Poem (1955), and The Struggle of the Modern (1963), and for his association with the influential review Encounter (1953–67). He also wrote short stories, essays, and autobiography.

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(born Nov. 6, 1892, Aspen, Colo., U.S.—died Dec. 6, 1951, Boston, Mass.) U.S. editor. He worked as a reporter and editor before launching The New Yorker in 1925 with the financial backing of a wealthy friend. The new magazine soon attracted established writers and artists as well as young talent drawn by its innovative style and Ross's encouragement. His famously unvarnished speech and bluster, which seemed at odds with his magazine's sophistication, masked extraordinary editorial instincts and capacities. Ross remained the guiding force behind The New Yorker until his death, though he relinquished many of his duties in his later years.

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(born Oct. 10, 1930, London, Eng.—died Dec. 24, 2008, London) British playwright. Born into a working-class family, he acted with touring companies until 1959. His early one-act plays were followed by the full-length The Birthday Party (1958). His next major plays, The Caretaker (1960) and The Homecoming (1965), established his reputation as an innovative and complex dramatist, sometimes considered as belonging to the Theatre of the Absurd. He often used disjointed small talk and lengthy pauses in dialogue to convey a character's thought, which often contradicts his speech. Pinter's later plays include Old Times (1971), No Man's Land (1975), Betrayal (1978; film, 1983), Mountain Language (1988), Moonlight (1993), and Celebration (2000). He also wrote radio and television plays, as well as screenplays for The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), and Sleuth (2007). In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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(born April 1, 1908, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 8, 1970, Menlo Park, Calif.) U.S. psychologist. He taught at Brooklyn College (1937–51) and Brandeis University (1951–69). A practitioner of humanistic psychology, he is known for his theory of “self-actualization.” In Motivation and Personality (1954) and Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), Maslow argued that each person has a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied, ranging from basic physiological requirements to love, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization. As each need is satisfied, the next higher level in the emotional hierarchy dominates conscious functioning.

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(born April 20, 1893, Burchard, Neb., U.S.—died March 8, 1971, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. film comedian. He began to appear in one-reel comedies in 1913 and mastered the comic chase scene as a member of Mack Sennett's troupe. He joined Hal Roach's company and created his Lonesome Luke character in popular movies such as Just Nuts (1915). He developed his trademark white-faced character wearing round glasses in 1918. Noted for his use of physical danger as a source of laughter, he performed his own daring stunts, hanging from the hands of a clock far above the street in Safety Last (1923) and standing in for a football tackling-dummy in The Freshman (1925). He was the highest paid star of the 1920s. He received a special Academy Award in 1952.

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(born June 30, 1893, Manchester, Eng.—died March 24, 1950, London) British political scientist, educator, and political leader. Educated at the University of Oxford, he taught at McGill University and Harvard University before returning to Britain to work for the Labour Party. He later taught at the London School of Economics (1926–50). He argued in works such as The State in Theory and Practice (1935) that the economic difficulties of capitalism might lead to the destruction of political democracy, and he came to view socialism as the only alternative to fascism. He was an assistant to Clement R. Attlee during World War II.

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(born May 28, 1915, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died May 7, 2001, Stanford, Calif.) U.S. anthropologist and linguist. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He eschewed more orthodox methods of historical linguistics for the approach he termed “mass” or “multilateral” comparison, which involved looking for phonetic resemblances among words in many languages simultaneously. His 1963 classification of African languages into four families (Afroasiatic, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan) was widely accepted. However, his 1987 classification of all American Indian languages into just two families, Amerind and Na-Dene (see Athabaskan languages) provoked a rancorous denunciation by specialists, who faulted both his data and his method.

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(born Jan. 19, 1918, Arkansas City, Ark., U.S.—died Aug. 8, 2005, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. magazine and book publisher. He moved to Chicago with his family and became a journalist. In 1942 he introduced Negro Digest, a periodical for blacks. Three years later he launched Ebony, a magazine he modeled on Life; by 2004 it had a circulation of some 1.7 million. Through Johnson Publishing Co., he also published black-oriented books and other magazines, and he later moved into radio broadcasting, insurance, and cosmetics manufacturing.

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(born Jan. 19, 1918, Arkansas City, Ark., U.S.—died Aug. 8, 2005, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. magazine and book publisher. He moved to Chicago with his family and became a journalist. In 1942 he introduced Negro Digest, a periodical for blacks. Three years later he launched Ebony, a magazine he modeled on Life; by 2004 it had a circulation of some 1.7 million. Through Johnson Publishing Co., he also published black-oriented books and other magazines, and he later moved into radio broadcasting, insurance, and cosmetics manufacturing.

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orig. James Harold Doolittle

(born Dec. 14, 1896, Alameda, Calif., U.S.—died Sept. 27, 1993, Pebble Beach, Calif.) U.S. general. He enlisted in the army in World War I and became an aviator. After the war he earned a Ph.D. in engineering and remained in the Army Air Corps as a test pilot until 1930, when he became head of aviation for Shell Oil Co. In 1932 he set a world air speed record. Returning to active duty during World War II, he led a daring raid on Tokyo (1942), for which he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. He commanded air operations on many fronts, including attacks on Germany in 1944–45. After the war he remained active in the aerospace industry. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.

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(born Oct. 28, 1896, Wahoo, Neb., U.S.—died Feb. 26, 1981, Rochester, N.Y.) U.S. composer, conductor, and educator. He was awarded the Rome Prize in 1921 and studied in Italy with Ottorino Respighi. Returning to the U.S., he became director of the Eastman School of Music (1924) and remained there 40 years, building the school into a world-renowned institution. Despite his keen scholarly interest in modern developments, his own music is neo-Romantic; he is best known for his seven symphonies—including the second (Romantic) and fourth (Requiem, Pulitzer Prize)—and his opera Merry Mount (1934).

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(born Nov. 6, 1892, Aspen, Colo., U.S.—died Dec. 6, 1951, Boston, Mass.) U.S. editor. He worked as a reporter and editor before launching The New Yorker in 1925 with the financial backing of a wealthy friend. The new magazine soon attracted established writers and artists as well as young talent drawn by its innovative style and Ross's encouragement. His famously unvarnished speech and bluster, which seemed at odds with his magazine's sophistication, masked extraordinary editorial instincts and capacities. Ross remained the guiding force behind The New Yorker until his death, though he relinquished many of his duties in his later years.

Learn more about Ross, Harold W(allace) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 10, 1930, London, Eng.—died Dec. 24, 2008, London) British playwright. Born into a working-class family, he acted with touring companies until 1959. His early one-act plays were followed by the full-length The Birthday Party (1958). His next major plays, The Caretaker (1960) and The Homecoming (1965), established his reputation as an innovative and complex dramatist, sometimes considered as belonging to the Theatre of the Absurd. He often used disjointed small talk and lengthy pauses in dialogue to convey a character's thought, which often contradicts his speech. Pinter's later plays include Old Times (1971), No Man's Land (1975), Betrayal (1978; film, 1983), Mountain Language (1988), Moonlight (1993), and Celebration (2000). He also wrote radio and television plays, as well as screenplays for The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), and Sleuth (2007). In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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(born April 20, 1893, Burchard, Neb., U.S.—died March 8, 1971, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. film comedian. He began to appear in one-reel comedies in 1913 and mastered the comic chase scene as a member of Mack Sennett's troupe. He joined Hal Roach's company and created his Lonesome Luke character in popular movies such as Just Nuts (1915). He developed his trademark white-faced character wearing round glasses in 1918. Noted for his use of physical danger as a source of laughter, he performed his own daring stunts, hanging from the hands of a clock far above the street in Safety Last (1923) and standing in for a football tackling-dummy in The Freshman (1925). He was the highest paid star of the 1920s. He received a special Academy Award in 1952.

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(born June 30, 1893, Manchester, Eng.—died March 24, 1950, London) British political scientist, educator, and political leader. Educated at the University of Oxford, he taught at McGill University and Harvard University before returning to Britain to work for the Labour Party. He later taught at the London School of Economics (1926–50). He argued in works such as The State in Theory and Practice (1935) that the economic difficulties of capitalism might lead to the destruction of political democracy, and he came to view socialism as the only alternative to fascism. He was an assistant to Clement R. Attlee during World War II.

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known as Harold Harefoot

(died March 17, 1040, Oxford, Eng.) King of England (1035–40). The illegitimate son of Canute the Great, he served as regent of England for his half brother Hardecanute, king of Denmark. In 1036 he murdered the royal claimant, Alfred the Aetheling, and proclaimed himself king. He fended off Welsh and Scottish invaders and was succeeded by Hardecanute.

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(born Sept. 18, 1901, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1980, New York City) U.S. director and drama critic. He was an actor from 1924 and was a founding member of the experimental Group Theatre. He directed a wide range of Broadway plays, including Awake and Sing! (1935), Member of the Wedding (1950), Touch of the Poet (1957), and Incident at Vichy (1965), and he wrote drama reviews for The New Republic (1949–53) and The Nation (1953–80).

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(born Sept. 18, 1901, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1980, New York City) U.S. director and drama critic. He was an actor from 1924 and was a founding member of the experimental Group Theatre. He directed a wide range of Broadway plays, including Awake and Sing! (1935), Member of the Wedding (1950), Touch of the Poet (1957), and Incident at Vichy (1965), and he wrote drama reviews for The New Republic (1949–53) and The Nation (1953–80).

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(born April 29, 1893, Walkerton, Ind., U.S.—died Jan. 5, 1981, La Jolla, Calif.) U.S. scientist. He received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and thereafter taught at various universities. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1934 for discovering deuterium and heavy water. He was a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb; his group worked on the gaseous diffusion process for separation of uranium-235. He devised methods for estimating the temperature of ancient oceans, theorized on the compositions of primordial atmospheres, and studied the relative abundances of the elements, making fundamental contributions to a widely accepted theory of the origin of the Earth and other planets in The Planets, (1952).

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(born July 11, 1930, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. literary critic. Bloom studied at Cornell and Yale universities and taught at Yale from 1955. In The Anxiety of Influence (1973) and A Map of Misreading (1975) he suggested that poetry results from poets deliberately misreading the works that both influence and threaten them. In The Book of J (1990) he speculated that the earliest known biblical texts were written by a woman with principally literary intentions. His best-selling The Western Canon (1994) identifies 26 canonical Western writers and argues against the politicization of literary study.

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orig. Hyman Arluck

(born Feb. 15, 1905, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.—died April 23, 1986, New York, N.Y.) U.S. songwriter. After working as a performer and arranger, in 1929 he began a collaboration with lyricist Ted Koehler (1894–1973) with the song “Get Happy”; until the mid-1930s they wrote many songs that were featured in shows at Harlem's Cotton Club. Arlen's scores for Broadway musicals include Bloomer Girl (1944) and St. Louis Woman (1946). For Hollywood films Arlen wrote the songs “It's Only a Paper Moon,” “Let's Fall in Love,” and “That Old Black Magic.” His most famous song is perhaps “Over the Rainbow” (lyrics by E.Y. Harburg) from The Wizard of Oz (1939).

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(born Oct. 28, 1896, Wahoo, Neb., U.S.—died Feb. 26, 1981, Rochester, N.Y.) U.S. composer, conductor, and educator. He was awarded the Rome Prize in 1921 and studied in Italy with Ottorino Respighi. Returning to the U.S., he became director of the Eastman School of Music (1924) and remained there 40 years, building the school into a world-renowned institution. Despite his keen scholarly interest in modern developments, his own music is neo-Romantic; he is best known for his seven symphonies—including the second (Romantic) and fourth (Requiem, Pulitzer Prize)—and his opera Merry Mount (1934).

Learn more about Hanson, Howard (Harold) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born May 28, 1915, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died May 7, 2001, Stanford, Calif.) U.S. anthropologist and linguist. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He eschewed more orthodox methods of historical linguistics for the approach he termed “mass” or “multilateral” comparison, which involved looking for phonetic resemblances among words in many languages simultaneously. His 1963 classification of African languages into four families (Afroasiatic, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan) was widely accepted. However, his 1987 classification of all American Indian languages into just two families, Amerind and Na-Dene (see Athabaskan languages) provoked a rancorous denunciation by specialists, who faulted both his data and his method.

Learn more about Greenberg, Joseph H(arold) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born June 11, 1932, Middleburg, S.Af.) South African playwright, director, and actor. He wrote two plays before The Blood Knot (1963), a penetrating analysis of apartheid, established his international reputation. He resumed the theme in Hello and Goodbye (1965) and Boesman and Lena (1969). He experimented with an imagist approach to drama in Orestes (1978) and three other works, then returned to more traditionally structured plays. His “Master Harold”elipsisand the Boys (1982) and The Road to Mecca (1985) were acclaimed in London and New York City. Subsequent plays include Playland (1992), The Captain's Tiger (1997), and Sorrows and Rejoicings (2002). Fugard acted in the films Marigolds in August (1980) and The Killing Fields (1984).

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(born July 21, 1899, Garrettsville, Ohio, U.S.—died April 27, 1932, at sea, Caribbean Sea) U.S. poet. Crane worked at a variety of jobs before settling in New York City. White Buildings (1926), his first book, includes “For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen.” His desire to respond to the cultural pessimism of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land resulted in the long and difficult poem The Bridge (1930), which attempts to create an epic myth of the American experience, celebrating the richness of modern life with visionary intensity. Alcoholic and despondent over his homosexuality, he committed suicide at 32 by jumping overboard from a ship in the Caribbean.

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(born July 11, 1930, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. literary critic. Bloom studied at Cornell and Yale universities and taught at Yale from 1955. In The Anxiety of Influence (1973) and A Map of Misreading (1975) he suggested that poetry results from poets deliberately misreading the works that both influence and threaten them. In The Book of J (1990) he speculated that the earliest known biblical texts were written by a woman with principally literary intentions. His best-selling The Western Canon (1994) identifies 26 canonical Western writers and argues against the politicization of literary study.

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(born June 11, 1932, Middleburg, S.Af.) South African playwright, director, and actor. He wrote two plays before The Blood Knot (1963), a penetrating analysis of apartheid, established his international reputation. He resumed the theme in Hello and Goodbye (1965) and Boesman and Lena (1969). He experimented with an imagist approach to drama in Orestes (1978) and three other works, then returned to more traditionally structured plays. His “Master Harold”elipsisand the Boys (1982) and The Road to Mecca (1985) were acclaimed in London and New York City. Subsequent plays include Playland (1992), The Captain's Tiger (1997), and Sorrows and Rejoicings (2002). Fugard acted in the films Marigolds in August (1980) and The Killing Fields (1984).

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orig. Hyman Arluck

(born Feb. 15, 1905, Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.—died April 23, 1986, New York, N.Y.) U.S. songwriter. After working as a performer and arranger, in 1929 he began a collaboration with lyricist Ted Koehler (1894–1973) with the song “Get Happy”; until the mid-1930s they wrote many songs that were featured in shows at Harlem's Cotton Club. Arlen's scores for Broadway musicals include Bloomer Girl (1944) and St. Louis Woman (1946). For Hollywood films Arlen wrote the songs “It's Only a Paper Moon,” “Let's Fall in Love,” and “That Old Black Magic.” His most famous song is perhaps “Over the Rainbow” (lyrics by E.Y. Harburg) from The Wizard of Oz (1939).

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(born April 1, 1908, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 8, 1970, Menlo Park, Calif.) U.S. psychologist. He taught at Brooklyn College (1937–51) and Brandeis University (1951–69). A practitioner of humanistic psychology, he is known for his theory of “self-actualization.” In Motivation and Personality (1954) and Toward a Psychology of Being (1962), Maslow argued that each person has a hierarchy of needs that must be satisfied, ranging from basic physiological requirements to love, esteem, and, finally, self-actualization. As each need is satisfied, the next higher level in the emotional hierarchy dominates conscious functioning.

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Harold is an Old English name, meaning "army leader", same as the title herald. A diminutive of Harold is Harry.

• Several kings of Denmark, England and Norway were named Harald or Harold
• Harold Arroyo, Puerto Rican boxer
• Harold Kyrle Money Bellew(1850-1911) classical actor of the 19th century
• Harold Ford, Jr. (D) U.S. Congressman, candidate for U.S. Senate
• Harold Perrineau, Jr. a US actor
• Harold Lloyd
• Harold Pinter
• Harold MacMillan

Fictional characters

• Harold Allnut, from the Batman comic series
• Harold Berman, from the Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold!
• Harold Bishop, from the Australian soap Neighbours
• Harold Crick, the main character from the movie Stranger than Fiction
• Harold the Helicopter, from The Railway Series by W.V. Awdry, and the television series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends
• Harold Lauder, from Stephen King's "The Stand"
• Harold and the Purple Crayon from the children's books by Crockett Johnson
• Harold, a living scarecrow from the Scary Stories' story 'Harold'
• Healthy Harold, the giraffe mascot of Life Education Australia
• Harold Holt, Australian Prime minister
• Harold Lee, from Harold and Kumar go to White Castle
• Harold the Bear, a fictional character from the mid-day British sitcom, Brunswick School
• Harold from Total Drama Island
• Harold Hutchins, a main character in Captain Underpants
• Harold Berman from the nickelodeon show Hey Arnold!

Other

• Harold (book), a book written in 1848 by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
• Harold (film), a 2008 comedy about a teenager with a very early on-set of male-pattern baldness
• Harold (improvisation), an improvisational form popularized by Del Close and now performed by improvisational comedy groups nationwide
• Harold in Italy, the second symphony by Hector Berlioz
• Harold (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
• Harold and Maude, a cult classic movie
• Harold or the Norman Conquest, an opera by Frederic Cowen
• Harold La Borde, the great Trinidadian Circumnavigators.