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Tallemant des Réaux, Gédéon

(Encyclopedia)Tallemant des Réaux, Gédéon zhādāôNˈ täləmäNˈ dā rāōˈ [key], 1619–92, French writer. His one great work is a series of brief anecdotal portraits of persons prominent in the Paris of h...

whirlwind

(Encyclopedia)whirlwind, revolving mass of air resulting from local atmospheric instability, such as that caused by intense heating of the ground by the sun on a hot summer day. Examples of whirlwinds are waterspou...

Bernardine of Siena, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Bernardine of Siena, Saint bûrˈnərdĭn, sēĕnˈə [key], 1380–1444, Italian preacher. He was a Franciscan of the Observant congregation and one of the most effective and most widely known preach...

Mantel, Dame Hilary

(Encyclopedia)Mantel, Dame Hilary, 1952–, English novelist, b. Hilary Mary Thompson. After working as a social worker, she moved to Botswana with her geologist husband and later to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, where she...

Miller, William

(Encyclopedia)Miller, William, 1782–1849, American sectarian leader, b. Pittsfield, Mass. He was the founder of the sect of Second Adventists, sometimes called Millerites. In 1831, convinced from study of the Bib...

Lucas, Edward Verrall

(Encyclopedia)Lucas, Edward Verrall, 1868–1938, English author and critic. For several years he was assistant editor of Punch. He wrote many volumes of gently satirical essays and travel books, including Old Lamp...

mugwumps

(Encyclopedia)mugwumps mŭgˈwŭmpsˌ [key], slang term in U.S. political history for the Republicans who in 1884 deserted their party nominee, James G. Blaine, to vote for the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland....

Hoel, Sigurd

(Encyclopedia)Hoel, Sigurd sēˈgo͝or hōˈəl [key], 1890–1960, Norwegian novelist. Hoel's sophisticated novels of urban life include the witty satire Sinners in Summertime (1927, tr. 1930) and the more serious...

Hume, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Hume, Joseph, 1777–1855, English politician and reformer. Although a Tory in early life, he sat in Parliament from 1818 to 1855 (with only one interruption) as an indefatigable Radical. Hume was a l...

Eichholtz, Jacob

(Encyclopedia)Eichholtz, Jacob īkhˈhôlts [key], 1776–1842, American portrait painter, b. Lancaster, Pa.; pupil of Gilbert Stuart in Boston but mainly self-taught. He painted portraits of some of the most promi...