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Smith, Edmund Kirby

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Edmund Kirby, or Edmund Kirby-Smith, 1824–93, American soldier, Confederate general in the Civil War, b. St. Augustine, Fla. A West Point graduate, he was cited for gallantry in the Mexican W...

Longs Peak

(Encyclopedia)Longs Peak [for Stephen H. Long], 14,255 ft (4,345 m) high, N Colo., in the Front Range of the Rocky Mts. From the east side of its snowcapped peak there is a 2,000 ft (610 m) drop to Chasm Lake. It i...

North, Sir Dudley

(Encyclopedia)North, Sir Dudley, 1641–91, English merchant and economist. Agent for the Turkey Company in Constantinople from 1662 to 1680, he returned to England a wealthy man and was commissioner of the customs...

Archilochus

(Encyclopedia)Archilochus ärkĭlˈəkəs [key], fl. c.700 or c.650 b.c., Greek poet, b. Paros. As an innovator in the use and construction of the personal lyric, his language was intense and often violent. Many fr...

Burgdorf

(Encyclopedia)Burgdorf bo͝orkˈdôrf [key], Fr. Berthoud, town (1990 est. pop. 15,373), NW Switzerland, on the Emme River. It is a textile-manufacturing and cheese-trading town. There is a 12th-century castle in w...

Turpin, Dick

(Encyclopedia)Turpin, Dick, 1706–39, English robber. After a short and brutal career of horse stealing and general crime he was hanged at York. The fame—or notoriety—that he later achieved derives mainly from...

Temple University

(Encyclopedia)Temple University, mainly in Philadelphia; coeducational; founded 1884 by Russell H. Conwell, chartered 1888 as a college, became a university 1907. In 1965 the university became a state-related insti...

Brookings, Robert Somers

(Encyclopedia)Brookings, Robert Somers, 1850–1932, American businessman and philanthropist, b. Cecil co., Md. He earned a fortune in business in St. Louis, Mo., and retired in 1897 to devote himself to philanthro...

Atwood, Margaret Eleanor

(Encyclopedia)Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939–, Canadian novelist and poet. Atwood is a skilled and powerful storyteller whose novels, set mainly in the near future, sometimes make use of such popular genres as hi...

Pepys, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Pepys, Samuel pēps [key], 1633–1703, English public official, and celebrated diarist, b. London, grad. Magdalene College, Cambridge, 1653. In 1656 he entered the service of a relative, Sir Edward M...