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Johnson, Magic

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Magic (Earvin Johnson, Jr.), 1959–, African-American basketball player, b. Lansing, Mich. After winning the national championship with Michigan State Univ. (1979), he joined the Los Angeles...

magic

(Encyclopedia)magic, in religion and superstition, the practice of manipulating and controlling the course of nature by preternatural means. Magic is based upon the belief that the universe is populated by unseen f...

magic

(Encyclopedia)magic, in entertainment, the seeming manipulation and supernatural control of the natural world for the amusement and amazement of an audience. Entertainment magic can be divided into four main catego...

magic lantern

(Encyclopedia)magic lantern: see stereopticon.

magic realism

(Encyclopedia)magic realism, primarily Latin American literary movement that arose in the 1960s. The term has been attributed to the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier, who first applied it to Latin-American fiction in ...

magic square

(Encyclopedia)magic square, a square divided into parts with letters or numbers inscribed therein that, whether combined vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, form the same sum or the same word. In ancient times...

square, magic

(Encyclopedia)square, magic: see magic square.

Johnson, Allen

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Allen, 1870–1931, American historian, b. Lowell, Mass. He was professor of history at Iowa (now Grinnell) College (1898–1905), Bowdoin College (1905–10), and Yale (1910–26). He achiev...

Johnson, Andrew

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Andrew, 1808–75, 17th President of the United States (1865–69), b. Raleigh, N.C. Early Life His father died when Johnson was 3, and at 14 he was apprenticed to a tailor. In 1826 the famil...

Johnson, Boris

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Boris (Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson), 1964–, British political leader, b. New York City, grad. Oxford (1986). While at Oxford Johnson was president of the prestigious Oxford Union deb...