Durocher Vdu-'ro-shaiA, Leo (Ernest) (b. July 27, 1905, West Spring- field, Mass., U.S.—d. Oct. 7, 1991, Palm Springs, Calif.) U.S. baseball player and manager. Durocher played for various teams from 1928 to 1938, distinguishing himself by his sharp fielding at shortstop. He gained notoriety as the cheeky, contentious manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers (1939-46, 1948); he was suspended from managing for the entire 1947 season for “conduct detrimental to baseball,” a vague charge that was based upon Durocher’s reputation for gambling and fast living. He man¬ aged the New York Giants 1948-55, left to become a commentator, returned to the game as a coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1961-64), and managed the Chicago Cubs (1966-72) and the Houston Astros (1972- 73). He is credited with the observation “Nice guys finish last” (what he actually said was, “The nice guys over there are in seventh place”).
Durrani, Ahmad Shah See Ahmad Shah Durrani
Durrell Vdo-roL, Lawrence (George) (b. Feb. 27, 1912, Jullundur, India—d. Nov. 7, 1990, Sommieres, France) British writer. He spent most of his life in Mediterranean countries, often in diplomatic posts. He is best known for the tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet, composed of the novels Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960), which explore the erotic lives of a group of exotic characters in Alexandria, Egypt. His poetry—including Cities, Plains and People (1946)—and nonfiction books about locales—including Prospero’s Cell (1945), Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953), and Bitter Lemons (1957), describing three Greek islands—are often considered his best works.
Durrenmatt \'diEr-9n- l mat\, Friedrich (b. Jan. 5, 1921, Konolfingen, near Bern, Switz.—d. Dec. 14, 1990, Neuchatel) Swiss playwright. His plays, showing the influence of Bertolt Brecht as well as the Theatre of the Absurd, were central to the post-1945 revival of the German theatre. In his first three plays, All as It Is Written (1947), The Marriage of Mr. Mis¬ sissippi (1952), and An Angel Comes to Babylon (1953), he took comic liberties with historical facts to present parables about modern life. His play The Visit (1956) and the modern morality play The Physicists (1962) earned him international acclaim. After 1970 he wrote adaptations, detec¬ tive novels, radio plays, and essays. His works have been translated into more than 50 languages.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Duryea ► Dutchman's-pipe i 583
Duryea Vdur- 1 ya\, Charles E(dgar) and J(ames) Frank (respec¬ tively b. Dec. 15, 1861, Canton, Ill., U.S.—d. Sept. 28, 1938, Philadel¬ phia, Pa.; b. Oct. 8, 1869, Washburn, Ill., U.S.—d. Feb. 15, 1967, Saybrook, Conn.) U.S. automotive inventors. Charles initially worked as a bicycle mechanic. After seeing a gasoline engine at a state fair, he designed a gasoline-powered automobile, and in 1893 he and his brother Frank constructed the first U.S. automobile, which they drove success¬ fully on the streets of Springfield, Mass. In Chicago in 1895, Frank drove an improved model to win the first U.S. auto race. In 1896 their company manufactured the first commercially produced U.S. automobiles; 13 cars were sold before the company failed and the brothers separated. Both started new automobile manufacturing ventures; Frank later developed the Stevens-Duryea limousine, which was produced into the 1920s.
Dusan, Stefan See Stefan Dusan
Duse Ydu-za\, Eleonora (b. Oct. 3, 1858, near or in Vigevano, Lom¬ bardy, Austrian Empire—d. April 21,
1924, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.) Italian actress. Bom into a family of touring actors, she appeared on stage from age four. She acted in several French plays to great acclaim from 1878 and toured with her own company in Europe and the U.S. after 1885. She fell in love with the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio in the 1890s and acted in several plays he wrote for her.
Unlike her contemporary Sarah Bernhardt, she did not try to project her own personality but instead sought to lose herself in her charac¬ ters. The most fluent and expressive actress of her day, she was especially noted for her roles in Henrik Ibsen’s plays. She retired in 1909 but returned to the stage in 1921 and was touring the U.S. when she died.
Dushanbe Vdyu-.sham-bo, .dyii-sham-'ba \ formerly (until 1929) Dyu- shambe Ydyti-.sham-bo, .dyii-sham-'baV (1929-61) Stalinabad \,sta-lyi-n3-'bad\ City (pop., 1998 est.: 513,000), capital of Tajikistan. It lies on the Varzob River in southwestern Tajikistan. It was built in the Soviet period on the site of three former settlements, the largest of which, Dyushambe, was a part of the khanate of Bukhara; the old city suffered severe damage during the Soviet takeover in 1920. In 1924 it became the capital of the new Tajik Autonomous S.S.R., and rapid industrial and population growth followed. An important transport junction, it accounts for much of the country’s industrial output.
Dussek Vdu-sek\, Jan Ladislav (b. Feb. 12, 1760, Caslav, Bohemia—d. March 20, 1812, St. Germain-en-Laye, France) Bohemian (Czech) composer and pianist. He toured Europe with great success as a pianist and studied with C.P.E. Bach. He joined his father-in-law’s music publishing firm in London (1792-99) but fled England to escape his credi¬ tors. He served two princely patrons and spent his last years in the house¬ hold of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand. A transitional figure between Classicism and Romanticism, he wrote some 60 violin sonatas, 15 piano concertos, and 30 admired piano sonatas, which may have influenced Lud¬ wig van Beethoven.
Diisseldorf Vdui-sol-.dorfN City (pop., 2002 est.: city, 570,765; metro, area, 1,315,736), capital of North Rhine-Westphalia state, western Ger¬ many. Located on the Rhine River, it is the administrative and cultural cen¬ tre of the industrial Rhine-Ruhr area. Chartered in 1288 by the count of Berg, Diisseldorf passed to the Palatinate-Neuberg line in 1609. Although it suffered considerably in the Thirty Years' War and the War of the Span¬ ish Succession, it later revived. It was transferred to Prussia in 1815 and grew rapidly with the establishment of iron and steel industries in the 1870s. Heavily damaged in World War II, its old buildings were repaired and new ones erected. It is the site of the first German skyscraper, the Wilhelm-Marx-Haus (1924). It is the birthplace of Heinrich Heine.
Dust Bowl Section of the U.S. Great Plains that extended over south¬ eastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico. The term originated after World War I, when the area’s grasslands were converted to agricultural
Eleonora Duse.
COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
fields. In the naturally dry climate, overcultivation added to the effect of a severe drought in the early 1930s, when heavy winds blew the loose topsoil in “black blizzards” that blocked out the sun and piled dirt in drifts. Many farmers and ranchers left the region for California and elsewhere. The planting of windbreaks and grassland enabled the area to recover by the early 1940s.
dusting See spraying and dusting
Dutch East India Co. See Dutch East India Co.
Dutch East Indies See Indonesia
Dutch elm disease Widespread disease that kills elms, caused by the FUNGUS Ceratocystis ulmi. It was first identified in the U.S. in 1930, and an eradication campaign could not stop its spread into regions wherever the very susceptible American elm ( Ulmus americana) grew. The leaves on one or more branches of a stricken tree suddenly wilt, turn dull green to yellow or brown, curl, and may drop early. Because symptoms are eas¬ ily confused with other diseases, positive diagnosis is possible only through laboratory culturing. The fungus can spread up to 50 ft (15 m) from diseased to healthy trees by natural root grafts. Overland, the fun¬ gus normally is spread by the European elm bark beetle ( Scolytus mul- tistriatus ; see bark beetle), less commonly by the American elm bark beetle (Hylurgopinus rufipes). Control involves exclusion of the beetles, usually by use of an insecticidal spray applied to the tree.