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castrato

(Encyclopedia)castrato kăsträˈtō [key] [Ital.,=castrated], a male singer with an artificially created soprano or alto voice, the result of castration in boyhood. The combination of the larynx of a youth and the...

Berkovits, Eliezer

(Encyclopedia)Berkovits, Eliezer ĕlˌēāˈzər brˈkōvĭts [key], 1908–92, rabbi, theologian, and educator, b. Romania. He served in the rabbinate in Berlin (1934–39), in Leeds, England (1940–46), in Sydne...

Biringuccio, Vannocio

(Encyclopedia)Biringuccio, Vannocio vän-nôˈchō bērēn-go͞otˈchō [key], 1480–c.1539, Italian metallurgist. He is best known for his practical manual of metallurgy, De la pirotechnia (1540, tr. 1942). As a ...

Tagore, Sir Rabindranath

(Encyclopedia)Tagore, Sir Rabindranath rəbĭnˈdrənät təgôrˈ, täko͝orˈ [key], 1861–1941, Indian author and guru, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata). Tagore came from a wealthy Bengali family. He went abroad in 18...

North, George

(Encyclopedia)North, George, fl. 1561–81, English gentleman, man of letters, and diplomat. A minor figure in the court of Queen Elizabeth I, he served as an ambassador to Sweden in 1564 and translated or adapted ...

Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich

(Encyclopedia)Novikov, Nikolai Ivanovich nyĭkəlīˈ ēväˈnəvĭch nôˈvēkəf [key], 1744–1818, Russian journalist and publisher. In 1769, with the Drone, he started the vogue of the satirical magazine model...

McClure, Samuel Sidney

(Encyclopedia)McClure, Samuel Sidney, 1857–1949, American editor and publisher, b. Co. Antrim, Ireland. He emigrated to America as a boy. In 1884 he established the McClure Syndicate, the first newspaper syndicat...

McCourt, Frank

(Encyclopedia)McCourt, Frank, 1930–2009, Irish-American memoirist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. When McCourt was four his immigrant family returned to Ireland. He dropped out of school at 13 and had saved enough by 19 to re...

Menen, Aubrey Clarence

(Encyclopedia)Menen, Aubrey Clarence mĕnˈən [key], 1912–89, English novelist, b. London. The son of an Indian father and an Irish mother, he was a drama critic, theater director, and advertising agency executi...

Mephibosheth

(Encyclopedia)Mephibosheth mĭfĭbˈəshĕth [key], in the Bible. 1 Jonathan's lame. David restored Saul's lands to him, and spared him when he gave the Gibeonites seven of Saul's descendants to settle a blood debt...