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Bowles, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Bowles, Paul, 1910–99, American writer and composer, b. New York City. He studied in Paris with Virgil Thomson and Aaron Copland and composed (1930s–40s) a number of modernist operas, ballets, son...

Eliot, T. S.

(Encyclopedia)Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns Eliot), 1888–1965, American-British poet and critic, b. St. Louis, Mo. One of the most distinguished literary figures of the 20th cent., T. S. Eliot won the 1948 Nobel P...

computer graphics

(Encyclopedia)computer graphics, the transfer of pictorial data into and out of a computer. Using analog-to-digital conversion techniques, a variety of devices—such as curve tracers, digitizers, and light pens—...

Gibbon, Edward

(Encyclopedia)Gibbon, Edward, 1737–94, English historian, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His childhood was sickly, and he had little formal education but read enormously and om...

Welles, Orson

(Encyclopedia)Welles, Orson, 1915–85, American actor, director, and producer, b. Kenosha, Wis. From childhood he evinced a precocious talent and lofty sense of self-assurance in theatrical matters. He began actin...

Nkrumah, Kwame

(Encyclopedia)Nkrumah, Kwame kwäˈmā nkro͞oˈmä [key], 1909–72, African political leader, prime minister ...

Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de

(Encyclopedia)Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de äNrēˈ də to͞olo͞ozˈ lōtrĕkˈ [key], 1864–1901, French painter and lithographer, b. Albi. Son of a wealthy nobleman, Lautrec fell and broke both legs when he was a...

DeLillo, Don

(Encyclopedia)DeLillo, Don dəlĭlˈō [key], 1936–, American novelist, b. New York City, grad. Fordham (1958). DeLillo is an accomplished prose stylist with a dark vision and mordant wit. In a steady stream of n...

Sontag, Susan

(Encyclopedia)Sontag, Susan sŏnˈtäg [key], 1933–2004, American writer and critic, b. New York City. She grew up in Arizona and California, studied philosophy at the Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, and Oxford, absor...

Einstein, Albert

(Encyclopedia)Einstein, Albert īnˈstīn [key], 1879–1955, American theoretical physicist, known for the formulation of the relativity theory, b. Ulm, Germany. He is recognized as one of the greatest physicists ...