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Schuyler, Philip John

(Encyclopedia)Schuyler, Philip John skīˈlər [key], 1733–1804, American Revolutionary general, b. Albany, N.Y. He was a member of one of the wealthiest colonial New York families. After serving in the French an...

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 1537?–1583, English soldier, navigator, and explorer; half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh. Knighted (1570) for his service in the campaigns in Ireland, he later (1572) served i...

Davis, Bette

(Encyclopedia)Davis, Bette bĕtˈē [key], 1908–89, American film actress, b. Lowell, Mass., as Ruth Elizabeth Davis. One of the most durable stars of the American screen, she made her debut in 1931. With a strik...

Trevor, William

(Encyclopedia)Trevor, William, 1928–2016, Anglo-Irish fiction writer, b. William Trevor Cox, grad. Trinity College, Dublin (1950). He resided in England from 1960. Trevor's novels are usually set in England or Ir...

veil

(Encyclopedia)veil, a feature of female costume from antiquity, especially in the East, where it was worn primarily to conceal the features. In modern times it is worn to enhance the face. The Egyptian woman of ran...

Parry, Sir William Edward

(Encyclopedia)Parry, Sir William Edward păˈrē [key], 1790–1855, British arctic explorer and rear admiral. He entered the navy at 13 and made his first voyage to the Arctic under Sir John Ross in 1818 in search...

Fugard, Athol

(Encyclopedia)Fugard, Athol (Athol Harold Lanigan Fugard) ätōlˈ fyo͞oˈgard, fo͞o– [key], 1932–, South African playwright, actor, and director. In 1965 he became director of the Serpent Players in Port Eli...

Hawkins, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Hawkins or Hawkyns, Sir John, 1532–95, English admiral. In 1562–63 and in 1564–65 he led extremely profitable expeditions that captured slaves on the W African coast, shipped them across the Atl...

kindergarten

(Encyclopedia)kindergarten [Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary s...

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...