(Encyclopedia) Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley, 1781–1826, British East Indian administrator. He was one of the founders of Britain's empire in East Asia. Beginning his career (1795) as a clerk…
(Encyclopedia) Shafak, Elif, 1971–, Turkish novelist who writes in Turkish and English, b. Strasbourg, France. The most widely read woman novelist in Turkey, she has written nearly 20 books, most of…
So How's the Europan Seafood? Even if life does exist on Europa, it is still too early to take up extraterrestrial ice fishing. Most likely, only very primitive forms of life would exist (microbes…
(Encyclopedia) OphitesOphitesōˈfīts [key] [Gr.,=believers in the serpent], group of Gnostic sects notorious for extreme cultism and inverted morality. Certain of these sects were known as Naasseni.…
(Encyclopedia) Frank, Jacob, c.1726–1791, Polish Jewish sectarian and adventurer, b. Podolia as Jacob Ben Judah Leib. He founded the Frankists, a heretical Jewish sect that was an anti-Talmudic…
(Encyclopedia) Sturges, PrestonSturges, Prestonstûrˈjĭs [key], 1898–1959, American film director, screenwriter, and producer, b. Chicago as Edmond Preston Biden. Educated in the United States and…
(Encyclopedia) St.-John's-wort, any species of the large and widespread herbaceous or shrubby genus Hypericum of the family Hypericaceae (St.-John's-wort family), usually found in moist, open places…
(Encyclopedia) Vestris, Lucia Elizabeth (Bartolozzi)Vestris, Lucia Elizabeth (Bartolozzi)bärtōlôtˈsē vĕsˈtrĭs [key], 1797–1856, English actress and manager, the first woman to be a lessee of a…
(Encyclopedia) Anderson, Maxwell, 1888–1959, American dramatist, b. Atlantic, Pa., grad. Univ. of North Dakota, 1911. His plays, many of which are written in verse, usually concern social and moral…
(Encyclopedia) Fersen, Count Hans Axel, 1755–1810, Swedish soldier and diplomat; son of Count Fredrik Axel Fersen. He entered (1779) the French service, was aide-de-camp of comte de Rochambeau in the…
