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Lynd, Robert Staughton

(Encyclopedia)Lynd, Robert Staughton, 1892–1970, American sociologist, b. New Albany, Ind.; grad. Princeton (B.A., 1914), Ph.D. Columbia, 1931. He taught at Columbia for 30 years (1931–61). With his wife, Helen...

Billings, Josh

(Encyclopedia)Billings, Josh, pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818–85, American humorist and lecturer, b. Lanesboro, Mass. After a roving life as farmer, explorer, and coal miner, he settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., ...

Bliss, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Bliss, Daniel, 1823–1916, American missionary, b. Franklin co., Vt., founder of Syrian Protestant College (now the American Univ. of Beirut) in Lebanon. He went to Syria in 1855, returning in 1862 t...

Tappan, Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Tappan, Lewis, 1788–1873, American abolitionist, b. Northampton, Mass. He became a partner in his brother Arthur's New York mercantile house in 1828 and in 1841 founded the first agency for rating c...

Taylor, Bert Leston

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Bert Leston, 1866–1921, American newspaper columnist, b. Goshen, Mass. He worked for a number of newspapers before establishing his column, “A Line o' Type or Two,” signed B. L. T., ...

Seaver, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Seaver, Tom (George Thomas Seaver), 1944–2020, American baseball pitcher and sportscaster, b. Fresno, Calif. During his career (1967–86), he won a total of 311 games for the New York Mets, Cincinn...

DiMaggio, Joe

(Encyclopedia)DiMaggio, Joe (Joseph Paul DiMaggio) dĭmăjˈēōˌ, –mäjˈēōˌ [key], 1914–99, American baseball player, b. Martinez, Calif. One of the most charismatic of 20th-century sports figures, “Jol...

Drew, John

(Encyclopedia)Drew, John, 1827–62, American actor, b. Dublin. After establishing a reputation as a comedian in the 1840s, he devoted his energies to the Arch Street Theatre, Philadelphia, where he maintained a fa...

O'Keeffe, Georgia

(Encyclopedia)O'Keeffe, Georgia ōkēfˈ [key], 1887–1986, American painter, b. Sun Prairie, Wis. After working briefly as a commercial artist in Chicago, O'Keeffe abandoned painting until she began the study of ...

Astaire, Fred

(Encyclopedia)Astaire, Fred əstârˈ [key], 1899–1987, American dancer, actor, and singer, b. Omaha, Nebr., as Frederick Austerlitz. After 1911 he and his sister Adele (1896–1981), b. Adele Marie Austerlitz, f...