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O'Brien, Edna

(Encyclopedia)O'Brien, Edna, 1932–, Irish writer. Although she moved to London in 1954, her constant theme and recurring setting is Ireland. In richly sensual prose, O'Brien explores the dreams, failed marriages,...

Burnside, Ambrose Everett

(Encyclopedia)Burnside, Ambrose Everett, 1824–81, Union general in the U.S. Civil War, b. Liberty, Ind. He saw brief service in the Mexican War and remained in the army until 1853, when he entered business in Rho...

Carver, Raymond

(Encyclopedia)Carver, Raymond, 1938–88, American short-story writer, b. Clatskanie, Oreg. He was raised in the Pacific Northwest, where he often set his sparely written tales of everyday blue-collar life. His per...

Winthrop, John, 1588–1649, governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony

(Encyclopedia)Winthrop, John, 1588–1649, governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, b. Edwardstone, near Groton, Suffolk, England. Of a landowning family, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, came into a fami...

Beneš, Eduard

(Encyclopedia)Beneš, Eduard ĕˈdo͝oärt bĕˈnĕsh [key], 1884–1948, Czechoslovakian president (1935–38, 1946–48). As a student at Prague Univ. he adopted the political and social philosophy of T. G. Masar...

spiritism

(Encyclopedia)spiritism or spiritualism, belief that the human personality continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living through the agency of a medium or psychic. The advocates of spiritism ar...

Simon, Neil

(Encyclopedia)Simon, Neil (Marvin Neil Simon), 1927–2018, American playwright, b. the Bronx, New York City. His plays, nearly all of them popular with audiences, if not always with critics, are comedies treating ...

Proudhon, Pierre Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Proudhon, Pierre Joseph pyĕr zhôzĕfˈ pro͞odhôNˈ [key], 1809–65, French social theorist. Of a poor family, Proudhon won an education through scholarships. Much of his later life was spent in p...

Persian language

(Encyclopedia)Persian language, member of the Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Indo-Iranian languages). The official language of Iran, it has about 38 millio...

Polk, James Knox

(Encyclopedia)Polk, James Knox pōk [key], 1795–1849, 11th President of the United States (1845–49), b. Mecklenburg co., N.C. To the surprise of many, the new President proved to be his own man; he even ignor...