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Judson Dance Theater

(Encyclopedia)Judson Dance Theater, a loose collective of dancers, musicians, and visual artists that produced an influential series of avant-garde performance pieces at Judson Memorial Church in New York City's Gr...

Kanin, Garson

(Encyclopedia)Kanin, Garson kāˈnən [key], 1912–99, American director and writer, b. Rochester, N.Y.; grad. American Academy of Dramatic Arts, 1933. He worked as a saxophonist, comedian, and actor before becomi...

business cycles

(Encyclopedia)business cycles, fluctuations in economic activity characterized by periods of rising and falling fiscal health. During a business cycle, an economy grows, reaches a peak, and then begins a downturn f...

Cassirer, Ernst

(Encyclopedia)Cassirer, Ernst ĕrnst käsērˈər [key], 1874–1945, German philosopher. He was a professor at the Univ. of Hamburg from 1919 until 1933, when he went to Oxford; he later taught at Yale and Columbi...

Bose, Subhas Chandra

(Encyclopedia)Bose, Subhas Chandra sho͝obhäshˈ chŭnˈdrə bōs [key], 1897–1945?, Indian nationalist also known as Netaji. He began his political career in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and soon became the leader of...

Noyce, Robert Norton

(Encyclopedia)Noyce, Robert Norton nois [key], 1927–90, American engineer, inventor, and entrepeneur, b. Burlington, Iowa.; grad. Grinnell College (B.A., 1949), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1953)...

Lewis, Jerry

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, Jerry, 1926–2017, extremely popular and influential American comedian, b. Newark, N.J. as Jerome Levitch. The son of vaudevillians, he entered show business early and entertained in the “bo...

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft

(Encyclopedia)Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, 1797–1851, English author; daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1814 she fell in love with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, accompanied him abroad, and ...

Cromer, Evelyn Baring, 1st earl of

(Encyclopedia)Cromer, Evelyn Baring, 1st earl of ēvˈlĭn bârˈĭng krōˈmər [key], 1841–1917, British administrator in Egypt. Appointed (1877) first British commissioner of the Egyptian public debt office, h...

Goodyear, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Goodyear, Charles, 1800–1860, American inventor, b. New Haven, Conn., originator of vulcanized rubber. He failed in his earlier business ventures and was in jail for debt when he began his experimen...