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Belloc, Hilaire

(Encyclopedia)Belloc, Hilaire (Joseph Hilaire Pierre Belloc) bĕlˈŏk [key], 1870–1953, English author, b. France. He became a British subject in 1902, and from 1906 to 1910 was a Liberal member of Parliament fo...

Yeats, W. B.

(Encyclopedia)Yeats, W. B. (William Butler Yeats), 1865–1939, Irish poet and playwright, b. Dublin. The greatest lyric poet Ireland has produced and one of the major figures of 20th-century literature, Yeats was ...

metaphysics

(Encyclopedia)metaphysics mĕtəfĭzˈĭks [key], branch of philosophy concerned with the ultimate nature of existence. It perpetuates the Metaphysics of Aristotle, a collection of treatises placed after the Physic...

Capote, Truman

(Encyclopedia)Capote, Truman käpōˈtē [key], 1924–84, American author, b. New Orleans as Truman Streckfus Persons. During his lifetime, the witty, diminutive writer was a well-known public personage, hobnobbin...

Reed College

(Encyclopedia)Reed College, at Portland, Oreg.; coeducational; inc. 1908, opened 1911 through a bequest from Mr. and Mrs. Simeon G. Reed. Reed is noted for its program of natural sciences and for its system of tuto...

Krasner, Lee

(Encyclopedia)Krasner, Lee krăsˈnər, krăzˈ– [key], 1911–84, American artist, b. Brooklyn. She studied with Hans Hofmann and became a leading figure in abstract expressionism along with her husband, Jackson...

Slatin, Rudolf Carl, Freiherr von

(Encyclopedia)Slatin, Rudolf Carl, Freiherr von päˈshä [key], 1857–1932, Austrian adventurer in British and Egyptian service. Called to Egypt by C. G. Gordon, Slatin became governor of Dara (1879) and governor...

jazz

(Encyclopedia)jazz, the most significant form of musical expression of African-American culture and arguably the most outstanding contribution the United States has made to the art of music. ...

spiritual

(Encyclopedia)spiritual, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States. The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopati...

Dwight, Harrison Gray Otis

(Encyclopedia)Dwight, Harrison Gray Otis, 1803–62, American Congregational missionary to the Armenians, b. Conway, Mass. He served the Armenian population of Constantinople for 30 years. His travels with Eli Smit...