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Whitman, Walt

(Encyclopedia)Whitman, Walt (Walter Whitman), 1819–92, American poet, b. West Hills, N.Y. Considered by many to be the greatest of all American poets, Walt Whitman celebrated the freedom and dignity of the indivi...

Wiseman, Frederick

(Encyclopedia)Wiseman, Frederick, 1930–, American documentary filmmaker, b. Boston, grad. Williams College (B.A., 1951), Yale Law School (LL.B., 1954). Wiseman practiced and taught law for about a decade, but his...

biology

(Encyclopedia)biology, the science that deals with living things. It is broadly divided into zoology, the study of animal life, and botany, the study of plant life. Subdivisions of each of these sciences include cy...

Bright, John

(Encyclopedia)Bright, John, 1811–89, British statesman and orator. He was the son of a Quaker cotton manufacturer in Lancashire. A founder (1839) of the Anti-Corn Law League, he rose to prominence on the strength...

Exeter Book

(Encyclopedia)Exeter Book, manuscript volume of Old English religious and secular poetry, of various dates of composition, compiled c.975 and given to Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric (d. 1072). See edition by G...

Oldham, John, English poet and satirist

(Encyclopedia)Oldham, John, 1653–83, English poet and satirist. His best-known works are the ironical Satires against the Jesuits (1681) and A Satire against Virtue (1679). He was much admired by Dryden, who wrot...

Majuba Hill

(Encyclopedia)Majuba Hill məjo͞oˈbə [key], E KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in the Drakensberg Range. On Feb. 27, 1881, a British force of 500 was routed there by Boer (Afrikaner) troops under the command of P. J...

Boston Latin School

(Encyclopedia)Boston Latin School, at Boston; opened 1635 as a school for boys; one of the oldest free public schools in the United States. Many famous men attended the school, including five signers of the Declara...

Cousteau, Jacques Yves

(Encyclopedia)Cousteau, Jacques Yves zhäk ēv ko͞ostōˈ [key], 1910–97, French oceanographer and naval officer. In 1943, with Émil Gagnan, he invented the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba)...

Oswald, Lee Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Oswald, Lee Harvey, 1939–63, presumed assassin of John F. Kennedy, b. New Orleans. Oswald spent most of his boyhood in Fort Worth, Tex. Later, he attended a Dallas high school, and enlisted (1956) i...