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Truffaut, François

(Encyclopedia)Truffaut, François fräNswäˈ trüfōˈ [key], 1932–84, French film director and critic. Known in his early 20s as a writer for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, he was noted...

Emin Pasha

(Encyclopedia)Emin Pasha āmēnˈ päˈshä [key], 1840–92, German explorer, whose original name was Eduard Schnitzer. A physician, he served (1876–78) under Gen. Charles Gordon in Sudan as a district medical o...

Peacock, Thomas Love

(Encyclopedia)Peacock, Thomas Love, 1785–1866, English novelist and poet. He was employed by the East India Company from 1819 to 1856, serving as its chief examiner the final 20 years. Peacock's novels, comic and...

Tolkien, J. R. R.

(Encyclopedia)Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel Tolkien) tälˈkēn, tōlˈ– [key], 1892–1973, British novelist, b. South Africa. A fantasy writer and Oxford don, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit (1937), adapted fro...

Philidor, François-André Danican

(Encyclopedia)Philidor, François-André Danican, 1726–95, French chess player and composer, b. Dreux. The last in a line of well-known 17th- and 18th-century musicians, he was a celebrated composer, mainly of mo...

program trading

(Encyclopedia)program trading, a form of securities trading, also known as index arbitrage. Program traders exploit the price discrepancies between indexes of stocks and futures contracts by using sophisticated com...

Campbell, Colin

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, Colin, d. 1729, Scottish architect, who, in England, became one of the initiators of the Neo-Palladian movement. Campbell's most important contribution to this revival of classicizing archit...

Mabinogion

(Encyclopedia)Mabinogion măbĭnōˈgēən [key], title given to a collection of medieval Welsh stories. Scholars differ as to the meaning of the word mabinogion: some think it to be the plural of the Welsh word ma...

disco

(Encyclopedia)disco, style of popular music that flourished during the 1970s. Originating in the United States, it evolved mainly from funk, soul, and salsa and became popular worldwide. Characterized by a heavy, t...

Houston Symphony

(Encyclopedia)Houston Symphony. Founded in 1913 with 33 players, the orchestra reorganized in 1930 and presented its first full season of concerts in 1931. Among its important conductors have been Ernst Hoffmann (1...