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Phips, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Phips, Sir William, 1651–95, American colonial governor. Born in what is today Maine, he was a carpenter and shipbuilder in Boston and became interested in sunken treasure. On his second hunt for tr...

Randolph, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Randolph, Edward, c.1632–1703, English colonial agent in America. In 1676 he carried royal instructions to Massachusetts Bay that required the colony to send representatives to England to satisfy co...

aesthetics

(Encyclopedia)aesthetics ĕsthĕtˈĭks [key], the branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of art and the criteria of artistic judgment. The classical conception of art as the imitation of nature was...

sonnet

(Encyclopedia)sonnet, poem of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, restricted to a definite rhyme scheme. There are two prominent types: the Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet (rh...

Morgan, Julia

(Encyclopedia)Morgan, Julia, 1872–1957, American architect, b. San Francisco, B.S. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1894. Trained as an engineer, she became the first woman to study architecture at the École des B...

Merchants of the Staple

(Encyclopedia)Merchants of the Staple or Merchant Staplers, English trading company that controlled the export of English raw wool. The first wool staple (i.e., a place designated by royal ordinance as a special ce...

long march

(Encyclopedia)long march, Chin., Changzheng, the journey of c.6,000 mi (9,660 km) undertaken by the Red Army of China in 1934–35. When their Jiangxi prov. Soviet base was encircled by the Nationalist army of Chia...

Foot, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Foot, Michael, 1913–2010, British politician. He joined the Labour party in the 1930s, entered Parliament in 1945, and served there until 1992. An superb debater and orator, he became an eloquent sp...

Jones, James Earl

(Encyclopedia)Jones, James Earl, 1931–, American actor, b. Tate co., Miss. Jones made his stage debut at the Univ. of Michigan and appeared thereafter for seven years with the New York Shakespeare Festival in Mac...

Dodd, William Edward

(Encyclopedia)Dodd, William Edward, 1869–1940, American historian and diplomat, b. Clayton, N.C. He was professor of history at Randolph-Macon College (1900–1908) and at the Univ. of Chicago (1908–33). From J...

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