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Plath, Sylvia

(Encyclopedia)Plath, Sylvia, 1932–63, American poet, b. Boston. Educated at Smith College and Cambridge, Plath published poems even as a child and won many academic and literary awards. Her first volume of poetry...

Humboldt Glacier

(Encyclopedia)Humboldt Glacier, NW Greenland. The largest known glacier of the Northern Hemisphere, it debouches into Kane Basin along a front c.60 mi (100 km) wide and 300 ft (91 m) high. U.S. explorer Elisha K. K...

country music

(Encyclopedia)country music, American popular music form originating in the Southern and Western United States. Country music is directly descended from the folk songs, ballads, and popular songs of the English, Sc...

Day, Dorothy

(Encyclopedia)Day, Dorothy, 1897–1980, American journalist and social activist, b. New York City. After studying at the Univ. of Illinois (1914–16), where she joined the Socialist party, she returned to New Yor...

Godwin, William

(Encyclopedia)Godwin, William, 1756–1836, English author and political philosopher. A minister in his youth, he was, however, plagued by religious doubts and gave up preaching in 1783 for a literary career. His E...

Klein, Yves

(Encyclopedia)Klein, Yves, 1928–62, French painter. With critic Pierre Restany, he was a leader of the avant-garde movement called Nouveau Réalisme (founded 1960). In the 1950s Klein began to work in monochromes...

bilingualism

(Encyclopedia)bilingualism, ability to use two languages. Fluency in a second language requires skills in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing, although in practice some of those skills are often...

Farnsworth, Philo Taylor

(Encyclopedia)Farnsworth, Philo Taylor, 1906–71, American inventor, b. Beaver, Utah, grad. Brigham Young Univ., 1925. He demonstrated (1927) a working model of a television system. His “dissector tube” (calle...

Turner, Nat

(Encyclopedia)Turner, Nat, 1800–1831, American slave, leader of the Southampton Insurrection (1831), b. Southampton co., Va. Deeply religious from childhood, Turner...

Fabricius, Hieronymus

(Encyclopedia)Fabricius, Hieronymus hīərŏnˈəməs [key], 1537–1619, Italian anatomist; pupil and successor of Fallopius and teacher of William Harvey at Padua. He was a surgeon, an embryologist, and an anatom...