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Wilson, Sir Angus

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, Sir Angus, 1913–91, English novelist, b. South Africa. As a novelist, he attempted to delineate a society in which traditional values have lost their force and human relationships are corrup...

Lenya, Lotte

(Encyclopedia)Lenya, Lotte lôtˈə lĕnˈyä [key], 1898–1981, Viennese singer and character actress, b. Karoline Blamauer. The wife of the composer Kurt Weill, Lenya was the foremost singer of his songs. She an...

Beaux, Cecilia

(Encyclopedia)Beaux, Cecilia bō [key], 1855–1942, American figure and portrait painter, b. Philadelphia. She studied in Philadelphia under William Sartain (see under Sartain, John) and Thomas Eakins, in Paris in...

Tilton, Theodore

(Encyclopedia)Tilton, Theodore, 1835–1907, American journalist, b. New York City. After working for the New York Observer he was (1863–71) editor in chief of the Independent, a Congregationalist weekly. He late...

Evelyn, John

(Encyclopedia)Evelyn, John ēvˈəlĭn, ĕvˈlĭn [key], 1620–1706, English diarist and miscellaneous writer. Although of royalist sympathies, he took little active part in the civil war. After 1652 he lived as a...

Calamity Jane

(Encyclopedia)Calamity Jane kəlămˈĭtē jānˈ [key], c.1852–1903, American frontier character, b. Princeton, Mo. Her real name was Martha Jane Canary, and the origin of her nickname is obscure. Little is know...

Taylor, Elizabeth, English novelist and short-story writer

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Elizabeth, 1912–1975, English novelist and short-story writer. Born Elizabeth Coles, she married John Taylor in 1936. She wrote a dozen novels and numerous short stories. In language that is...

Stone, Lucy

(Encyclopedia)Stone, Lucy, 1818–93, reformer and leader in the women's rights movement, b. near West Brookfield, Mass., grad. Oberlin, 1847. In 1847 she gave her first lecture on women's rights, and the following...

shamrock

(Encyclopedia)shamrock, a plant with leaves composed of three leaflets. According to legend it was used by St. Patrick in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity; it is now used as the emblem of Ireland. An artifici...

Burlington, Richard Boyle, 3d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Burlington, Richard Boyle, 3d earl of, 1694–1753, English patron and architect of the Neo-Palladian movement. Even before age 21, when he became a member of the Privy Council and Lord High Treasurer...