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American Legion

(Encyclopedia)American Legion, national association of male and female war veterans, founded (1919) in Paris. Membership is open to veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The preamble...

American literature

(Encyclopedia)American literature, literature in English produced in what is now the United States of America. The years immediately after World War I brought a highly vocal rebellion against established socia...

West, Dame Rebecca

(Encyclopedia)West, Dame Rebecca, 1892–1983, English novelist and critic, b. Ireland as Cicily Isabel Fairfield. West began her career as a journalist for feminist and suffragist publications. At various times sh...

Benjamin, Park

(Encyclopedia)Benjamin, Park, 1809–64, American journalist, b. British Guiana (now Guyana). As owner and editor of the New England Magazine, he merged it (1835) with the American Monthly Magazine of New York and ...

Barnstable

(Encyclopedia)Barnstable bärnˈstəbəl [key], town (2020 pop. 44,107), seat of Barnstable co., SE Mass.; inc. ...

Ridpath, John Clark

(Encyclopedia)Ridpath, John Clark, 1840–1900, American educator and author, b. Putnam co., Ind., grad. Indiana Asbury College (now DePauw Univ.), 1863. After teaching in Indiana schools, he was successively (1869...

Hopkins, Mark, American railroad builder and merchant

(Encyclopedia)Hopkins, Mark, 1813–78, American railroad builder and merchant, b. Henderson, N.Y. A clerk in a village store and later a commission merchant in New York City, he was more than 35 years old when he ...

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...

Erskine, John, American educator, author, and musician

(Encyclopedia)Erskine, John, 1879–1951, American educator, author, and musician, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (B.A., 1900; Ph.D., 1903). He taught first at Amherst (1903–9) and then at Columbia, becoming pr...

James, Thomas, American fur trader and pioneer

(Encyclopedia)James, Thomas, 1782–1847, American fur trader and pioneer, b. Maryland. He accompanied the 1809 expedition of the Missouri Fur Company up the Missouri River. He left the expedition at the Mandan vil...