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Beckett, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Beckett, Samuel bĕkˈĭt [key], 1906–89, Anglo-French playwright and novelist, b. Dublin. Beckett studied and taught in Paris before settling there permanently in 1937. He wrote primarily in French...

Degas, Edgar

(Encyclopedia)Degas, Edgar (Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas) ēlĕrˈ zhĕrmăNˈ ĕdgärˈ dəgäˈ [key], 1834–1917, French painter and sculptor, b. Paris; son of a banker. Although prepared for the law, he abandon...

Harkness, Edward Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Harkness, Edward Stephen, 1874–1940, American philanthropist, b. Cleveland. He inherited a fortune from his father, a partner of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. His extensive philanthropies, many of them a...

Brooklyn Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Brooklyn Bridge, vehicular suspension bridge, New York City, southernmost of the bridges across the East River, between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn; built 1869–83. The achievement of J. A. Roebling...

police

(Encyclopedia)police, public and private agents concerned with the enforcement of law, order, and public protection. In modern cities their duties cover a wide range of activities, from criminal investigation and a...

Gordimer, Nadine

(Encyclopedia)Gordimer, Nadine nādēnˈ gôrˈdəmər [key], 1923–2014, South African writer, b. Springs. A member of the African National Congress, Gordimer fought apartheid in her political life and in her wri...

Guevara, Che

(Encyclopedia)Guevara, Che (Ernesto Guevara) chā gāväˈrä, ārnĕsˈtō [key], 1928–67, Cuban revolutionary and political leader, b. Argentina. Trained as a physician at the Univ. of Buenos Aires, he took par...

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

(Encyclopedia)Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan kōˈnən, kŏnˈən [key], 1859–1930, British author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, b. Edinburgh. Educated at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, he received a medical degree...

rap music

(Encyclopedia)rap music or hip-hop, African-American popular music style that originated in the mid-to-late ‘70s, which incorporates DJing, MCing, dance, and fashion. See studies by M. Costello and D....

Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot

(Encyclopedia)Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot, 1910–94, English chemist and X-ray crystallographer, b. Egypt. She received the 1964 Nobel Prize in chemistry for determining the structure of biochemical compounds (...