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Godard, Jean-Luc

(Encyclopedia)Godard, Jean-Luc zhäN-lük gôdärˈ [key], 1930–, French film director and scriptwriter, b. Paris. He wrote criticism for a number of Parisian cinema journals in the early 1950s before embarking o...

James I, king of England

(Encyclopedia)James I, 1566–1625, king of England (1603–25) and, as James VI, of Scotland (1567–1625). James's reign witnessed the beginnings of English colonization in North America (Jamestown was founded in...

Henderson, Fletcher

(Encyclopedia)Henderson, Fletcher (James Fletcher “Smack” Henderson), 1898–1952, American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist, b. Cuthbert, Ga. Henderson played piano from childhood. Short of funds after com...

Standish, Miles

(Encyclopedia)Standish, Miles or Myles, c.1584–1656, American colonist, b. England. After serving as a soldier for a number of years, Standish accompanied the Pilgrims to America on the Mayflower (1620) and was r...

Thomas, Dylan

(Encyclopedia)Thomas, Dylan dĭlˈən [key], 1914–53, Welsh poet, b. Swansea. An extraordinarily individualistic writer, Thomas is ranked among the great 20th-century poets. He grew up in Swansea, the son of a te...

Erebus, Mount

(Encyclopedia)Erebus, Mount, volcanic peak, 12,280 ft (3,743 m) high, on Ross Island, in the Ross Sea, E Antarctica. One of the loftiest volcanoes of the world, it was discovered in 1841 by the British explorer Jam...

koan

(Encyclopedia)koan kōˈän [key] [Jap.,=public question; Chin. kung-an], a subject for meditation in Ch'an or Zen Buddhism, usually one of the sayings of a great Zen master of the past. In the formative period of ...

Yan'an

(Encyclopedia)Yan'an or Yenan both: yĕn-än [key], city (1991 pop. 115,900), N Shaanxi prov., China, on the Yen River. Now a market and tourist center, it is famed as the terminus of the long march and the de fact...

Liberty party

(Encyclopedia)Liberty party, in U.S. history, an antislavery political organization founded in 1840. It was formed by those abolitionists, under the leadership of James G. Birney and Gerrit Smith, who repudiated Wi...

Claiborne, William Charles Coles

(Encyclopedia)Claiborne, William Charles Coles, 1775–1817, governor of Louisiana, b. Sussex co., Va. He began law practice in Sullivan co., Tenn., and was appointed a judge of the state supreme court in 1796. As ...