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Bickerstaffe, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Bickerstaffe, Isaac, c.1735–c.1812, English dramatist, b. Ireland. Included among his comedies and ballad operas are The Maid of the Mill (produced in 1765) and The Padlock (produced in 1768). ...

Beeckman, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Beeckman, Isaac bākˈmən [key], 1588–1637, Dutch physicist. An early proponent of mathematical reasoning and experimental verification in natural philosophy, he contributed to the modern conceptio...

Stern, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Stern, Isaac, 1920–2001, American violinist, b. Kremenets, in what is now Ukraine. Brought to the United States as an infant, Stern began piano lessons at the age of six and violin lessons at eight....

Butt, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Butt, Isaac, 1813–79, Irish politician and nationalist leader. A member of both the Irish and the English bar, he was a noted conservative lawyer and scholar and an opponent of Daniel O'Connell. Aft...

Cowley, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Cowley, Abraham ko͞oˈlē, kouˈ– [key], 1618–67, one of the English metaphysical poets. He published his first volume of verse, Poetical Blossoms (1633), when he was 15. While a student at Cambr...

Bickerstaff, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Bickerstaff, Isaac, pseudonym used by Jonathan Swift and later by Richard Steele in the Tatler. ...

Asimov, Isaac

(Encyclopedia)Asimov, Isaac ăzˈəmŏf [key], 1920–92, American author and scientist, b. Petrovichi, USSR, grad. Columbia (B.S., 1939; M.A., 1941; Ph.D., 1948). An astonishingly prolific author, he wrote over 40...

Tucker, Abraham

(Encyclopedia)Tucker, Abraham, 1705–74, English philosopher, b. London. He studied law at Merton College, Oxford, and later devoted himself to independent study. He advanced the ethical view that each man seeks h...

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