Wertmuller Vvert-.mii-brV Lina orig. Arcangela Wertmuller von Elgg (b. Aug. 14, 1928, Rome, Italy) Italian film director. After working as a puppeteer and stage actress and director, she became an assistant to Federico Fellini and began writing and directing her own films in 1963. She achieved international fame with The Seduction of Mimi (1972), a satire on sexual hypocrisy, and Love and Anarchy (1972). Her most controversial works were the witty Swept Away (1974) and the mor¬ ally ambiguous Seven Beauties (1976), about a man scrabbling to survive in a Nazi concentration camp. Her later movies, including Ciao, Profes- sore (1994), were less successful.
Weser River Vva-Z3r\ River, western Germany. Formed by the union of the Fulda and Werra rivers at Miinden, it flows northward into the North Sea through a large estuary. It is 273 mi (440 km) long. There are several hydroelectric dams on the Weser, and it is linked with numerous canals.
Lon Chaney, Jr., as a werewolf in The Wolf Man (1941).
COURTESY OF UNIVERSAL PICTURES; PHOTOGRAPH, LINCOLN CENTER LIBRARY OF THE PERFORMING ARTS, NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Wesley ► West Indies I 2047
Wesley, John (1703-1791) Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and cofounder of Methodism. The 15th child of a former Nonconformist min¬ ister, he graduated from Oxford University and became a priest in the Church of England in 1728. From 1729 he participated in a religious study group in Oxford organized by his brother Charles (1707-1788), its mem¬ bers being dubbed the “Methodists” for their emphasis on methodical study and devotion. Its numbers grew, and it began to undertake social and charitable activities. After a largely unsuccessful mission to the North American colony of Georgia (1735-37), they returned to London, where they came under the influence of the Moravian Church. In 1738, inspired by the theology of Martin Luther, both men had a religious experience that convinced them that salvation was possible through faith alone. Zealous evangelists, they had great success in preaching to the masses in the suc¬ ceeding decades. In 1784 John began ordaining ministers himself when the bishop of London refused to do so (despite Charles’s disapproval) and declared his independence from the Church of England. The two wrote several thousand hymns, including “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and “Christ the Lord Is Ris’n Today.”
Wesleyan University Private university in Middletown, Conn. It was founded in 1831 by Methodists, who named the institution for John Wesley. Its formal ties to the Methodist church ended in 1937. Wesleyan offers 50 major fields of undergraduate and graduate study, including roughly one dozen master’s and doctoral programs in music and sciences. Campus facilities include centres for African American and East Asian studies, an astronomical observatory, and the Center for Humanities and Arts.
Wessex Ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, southern England. Its area approximated that of the counties of Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somer¬ set, Berkshire, and Avon. Its capital was Winchester. The kingdom is tra¬ ditionally thought to have been founded by Saxon invaders of Britain c. 494. Wessex conquered Kent and Sussex, and in the 9th century, under King Alfred the Great, it prevented the Danes from conquering England south of the Danelaw. By 927 Wessex had reconquered the Danelaw, and Alfred’s grandson, Athelstan, had become king of all England; thereafter all kings of Wessex were kings of England. The region figures promi¬ nently in legends of King Arthur (see Arthurian legend), and the designa¬ tion “Wessex” was used by Thomas Hardy to represent the region of southwestern England in which he set his works of fiction.
West, Benjamin (b. Oct. 10, 1738, near Springfield, Pa.—d. March 11, 1820, London, Eng.) U.S.-British painter. After studying painting in his native Philadelphia, he established himself as a portraitist in New York City. He sailed to Italy in 1760 and visited most of its art centres before settling in London in 1763. The patronage of George III freed him of the need to paint portraits for a living, and he became known for historical, religious, and mythological subjects. His Death of General Wolfe (1771) aroused controversy for its depiction of modem dress rather than the flowing robes expected in a history painting, but it was one of his most popular works. He never returned to the U.S., but through such pupils and followers as Washington Allston, Gilbert Stuart, Charles Willson Peale, and John Singleton Copley he exerted considerable influence on the devel¬ opment of U.S. art in the 19th century.
West, Jerry in full Jerome Alan West (b. May 28, 1938, Cheylan, W.Va., U.S.) U.S. basketball player, coach, and manager. As a sharp¬ shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers (1960-74), he compiled a career scoring average of 27 points and earned the nickname “Mr. Clutch.” As the Lakers’ head coach (1976-79), he led them to 145 wins and 101 losses. He later became the team’s general manager and executive vice president and contributed to the team’s eight NBA titles between 1980 and 2002. In 2002 he joined the front office of the Memphis Grizzlies.
West, Mae (b. Aug. 17, 1892/93, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—d. Nov. 22, 1980, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. film actress. She performed with a Brook¬ lyn stock company around 1901, and by 1907 she had become a performer on the national vaudeville circuit. She made her Broadway debut as a singer and dancer in 1911. In 1926 she began to write, produce, and star in her own Broadway plays, including the sensation-creating Sex (1926), Diamond Lil (1928), and The Constant Sinner (1931), productions that mired her in legal battles. Her frank sensuality, regal postures, and sug¬ gestive wisecracks became her trademarks in popular movies such as She Done Him Wrong (1933), Belle of the Nineties (1934), I’m No Angel (1933), and My Little Chickadee (1940). In World War II Allied soldiers called their inflatable life jackets “Mae Wests” in honour of her hourglass
figure. Her films were revived in the 1960s, and she appeared in Myra Breckenridge (1970) and Sextette (1979).
West, Nathanael orig. Nathan Weinstein (b. Oct. 17,1903, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 22, 1940, near El Centro, Calif.) U.S. writer. He attended Brown University and was supporting himself as a hotel manager, giving free or low-rent rooms to struggling fellow writers, when he wrote the novella Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), about an advice colum¬ nist whose attempts to solace his correspondents end in ironic defeat. A Cool Million (1934) mocks the American dream as popularized by Hor¬ atio Alger. His last novel. The Day of the Locust (1939), depicts the sav¬ agery lurking beneath the Hollywood dream. Though not widely read until after his death in an auto accident at age 37, West is now considered a major American novelist.
West, Dame Rebecca orig. Cicily Isabel Fairfield (b. Dec. 21, 1892, London, Eng.—d. March 15, 1983, London) British journalist, nov¬ elist, and critic. Trained as an actress, from 1911 West contributed to the left-wing press and made a name as a fighter for woman suffrage. She had a 10-year love affair (1913-23) with the novelist H.G. Wells. Her novels, including The Judge (1922), The Thinking Reed (1936), and The Birds Fall Down (1966), attracted less attention than her social and cultural writings. Her admired reports on the NOrnberg trials were collected in A Train of Powder (1955). Her history of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1942), is regarded as one of the century’s finest nonfiction works. In 1946 she reported on the trial for treason of William Joyce, articles that were later published as The Meaning of Treason (1949).
West Atlantic languages See Atlantic languages
West Bank Area (pop., 2002 est.: 2,414,000), Palestine, west of the Jor¬ dan River and east of Jerusalem. Covering an area of about 2,270 sq mi (5,900 sq km), excluding east Jerusalem, the territory is also known within Israel by its biblical names, Judaea and Samaria. It is a region with deep history, forming the heart of historic Palestine. Populated areas include Nabulus, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jericho. Under a 1947 UN agreement, most of what is now the West Bank was to become part of a Palestinian state. When the State of Israel was formed, the Arabs attacked Israel (see Arab-Israeu wars), and the partition plan was never adopted. Following a truce, Jordan remained in control of the area and annexed it in 1950. Israel subsequently occupied it during the Six- Day War of 1967. During the 1970s and ’80s Israel established settlements there, provoking resentment among the Arab population and protest from the international community. Arab uprisings began in 1987 in the Gaza Strip and spread to the West Bank (see intifadah). Jordan relinquished its claims in 1988, ceding them to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Secret meetings between the PLO and Israel in 1993 led to an end of violence and an agreement granting Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Further negotiations to resolve outstanding issues proceeded intermit¬ tently in the 1990s but broke down amid renewed violence in late 2000.