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Borges, Jorge Luis

(Encyclopedia)Borges, Jorge Luis hôrˈhā lo͞oēsˈ bôrˈhās [key], 1899–1986, Argentine poet, critic, and short-story writer, b. Buenos Aires. Borges has been widely hailed as the foremost contemporary Spani...

Twain, Mark

(Encyclopedia)Twain, Mark, pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910, American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. His novel The Ad...

Nation, Carry Moore

(Encyclopedia)Nation, Carry Moore, 1846–1911, American temperance advocate, b. Garrard co., Ky. During her childhood her family moved a great deal, finally settling at Belton, Mo., where she married (1867) Charle...

McGuffey, William Holmes

(Encyclopedia)McGuffey, William Holmes məgŭfˈē [key], 1800–1873, American educator, b. near Claysville, Pa. He was graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1826, having meanwhile taught in rural sch...

Satie, Erik

(Encyclopedia)Satie, Erik ārēkˈ sätēˈ [key], 1866–1925, French composer, studied at the Paris Conservatory; pupil of Vincent D'Indy and Albert Roussel at the Schola Cantorum. He early realized that the roma...

Chavín de Huántar

(Encyclopedia)Chavín de Huántar chävēnˈ dā wänˈtär [key], archaeological site in the northeastern highlands of Peru, near the headwaters of the Marañon River. It flourished between c.900 b.c. and 200 b.c....

Cibber, Colley

(Encyclopedia)Cibber, Colley sĭbˈər [key], 1671–1757, English dramatist and actor-manager. Joining the company at the Theatre Royal in 1690, Cibber became successful as a comedian, playing the fops of Restorat...

Godkin, Edwin Lawrence

(Encyclopedia)Godkin, Edwin Lawrence gŏdˈkĭn [key], 1831–1902, American editor, b. Moyne, Ireland, of English parentage. His idealism found expression in his History of Hungary and the Magyars (1853) and won h...

Amin, Idi

(Encyclopedia)Amin, Idi ēˈdē amēnˈ [key], c.1925–2003, Ugandan army officer and dictator. From the small Kakwa ethnic group, he advanced in the Ugandan armed forces from private (1946) to major general (1968...

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, American author and physician

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809–94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a gen...