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Spencer, Sir Stanley

(Encyclopedia)Spencer, Sir Stanley, 1891–1959, English painter. In his landscapes and his often highly erotic portraits and religious-allegorical scenes, Spencer's paintings express a highly personal magic realis...

Pride, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Pride, Thomas, d. 1658, English parliamentary soldier in the English civil war. In Dec., 1648, acting on the orders of the army council, he carried out Pride's Purge, expelling from Parliament 143 mem...

Sancho II, Spanish king of Castile

(Encyclopedia)Sancho II sänˈchō [key], d.1072, Spanish king of Castile (1065–72), son and successor of Ferdinand I. He conquered (1072) León from his brother Alfonso VI, but his sister Urraca rebelled against...

Ahasuerus

(Encyclopedia)Ahasuerus āhăsˌyo͞oēˈrəs [key], Hebrew form of the name Xerxes, as used in the Bible. The Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther is probably Xerxes I. That in the Book of Tobit may be Cyaxares I, dest...

Virgin Islands

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Virgin Islands, group of about 100 small islands, West Indies, E of Puerto Rico. The islands are divided politically between the United States and Great Britain. Although constituting the weste...

Tasmania

(Encyclopedia)Tasmania tăzmāˈnēə [key], island state (2016 pop. 509,965), 26,383 sq mi (68,332 sq km), SE Commonwealth of Australia. It is separated from Australia by the Bass Strait and lies 150 mi (240 km) s...

Iturbide, Agustín de

(Encyclopedia)Iturbide, Agustín de ägo͞ostēnˈ dā ēto͞orbēˈᵺā [key], 1783–1824, Mexican revolutionist, emperor of Mexico (1822–23). An officer in the royalist army, he was sympathetic to independenc...

Morrison, Toni

(Encyclopedia)Morrison, Toni, 1931–2019, American writer, b. Lorain, Ohio, as Chloe Ardelia (later Anthony) Wofford; B.A. Howard Univ., 1953, M.F.A. Cornell, 1955. Her fiction is noted for its poetic language, lu...

Koestler, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Koestler, Arthur kĕstˈlər [key], 1905–83, English writer, b. Budapest of Hungarian parents. Koestler spent his early years in Vienna and Palestine. He was an influential Communist journalist in B...

Swedish language

(Encyclopedia)Swedish language, member of the North Germanic, or Scandinavian, group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. It is the official language of Sweden and one of the official...