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Pittsfield

(Encyclopedia)Pittsfield, city (1990 pop. 48,622), seat of Berkshire co., W Mass., between mountain ranges, on branches of the Housatonic River; inc. as a town 1761, as a city 1889. The city is the metropolis of th...

Waite, Terry

(Encyclopedia)Waite, Terry (Terence Waite), 1939–, British church official. An adviser to Robert Runcie, the archbishop of Canterbury, he successfully negotiated the release of British hostages in Iran (1981) and...

Clancy, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Clancy, Tom (Thomas Leo Clancy, Jr.), 1947–2013, American popular novelist, b. Baltimore, grad. Loyola Univ. Maryland (B.A., 1969). While working as an insurance agent he wrote The Hunt for Red Octo...

Glasgow, Ellen

(Encyclopedia)Glasgow, Ellen glăsˈgō [key], 1873–1945, American novelist, b. Richmond, Va. In revolt against the romantic treatment of Southern life, Glasgow presented in fiction a social history of Virginia s...

Derby, Elias Hasket

(Encyclopedia)Derby, Elias Hasket dûrˈbē [key], 1739–99, American merchant, b. Salem, Mass. He inherited the considerable wealth and maritime business that his father, Richard Derby (1712–83), also of Salem,...

Wheelwright, John

(Encyclopedia)Wheelwright, John, c.1592–1679, American Puritan clergyman, founder of Exeter, N.H., b. Lincolnshire, England. He studied at Cambridge and was vicar (1623–33) of Bilsby. Suspended by Archbishop La...

Gould, Jay

(Encyclopedia)Gould, Jay, 1836–92, American speculator, b. Delaware co., N.Y. A country-store clerk and surveyor's assistant, he rose to control half the railroad mileage in the Southwest, New York City's elevate...

Hoover, J. Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar Hoover), 1895–1972, American administrator, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), b. Washington, D.C. Shortly after he was admitted to the bar, he enter...

Stafford, Jean

(Encyclopedia)Stafford, Jean, 1915–79, American writer, b. Covina, Calif., grad. Univ. of Colorado, 1936. Her literary reputation rests primarily on her exquisitely wrought short stories. Both these and her novel...

taconite

(Encyclopedia)taconite, low-grade iron ore, a flintlike rock usually containing less than 30% iron. Resistant to drilling and to the extraction of its contained metal, the rock was long considered worthless. Experi...