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Dempsey, Jack

(Encyclopedia)Dempsey, Jack (William Harrison Dempsey), 1895–1983, American boxer, b. Manassa, Colo. Dempsey, called the “Manassa Mauler,” emerged from fights on saloon floors near mining camps to become (191...

Pousette-Dart, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Pousette-Dart, Richard, 1916–92, American painter, b. St. Paul, Minn. The son of an artist and a poet and largely self-taught, he was a member of the first generation of abstract expressionism. He l...

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...

Randall, John Ernest, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Randall, John Ernest, Jr., 1924–2020, American ichthyologist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa, 1955. A marine taxonomist, he named 30 new genera and hundreds of new species of fish. Par...

Still, William Grant

(Encyclopedia)Still, William Grant, 1895–1978, American composer, b. Woodville, Miss. Still was of Native American, African-American, and European ancestry. He studied music at Oberlin, with Chadwick at the New E...

Thurber, James

(Encyclopedia)Thurber, James, 1894–1961, American humorist, b. Columbus, Ohio, studied at Ohio State Univ. After working on various newspapers he served on the staff of the New Yorker from 1927 to 1933 and was la...

Wigglesworth, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Wigglesworth, Michael, 1631–1705, American clergyman and poet, b. England, grad. Harvard, 1651. His family emigrated to New England in 1638. A devoted minister at Malden, Mass., he also practiced me...

Ovid

(Encyclopedia)Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) ŏvˈĭd [key], 43 b.c.–a.d. 18, Latin poet, b. Sulmo (present-day Sulmona), in the Apennines. Although trained for the law, he preferred the company of the literary cote...

Murphy, William Parry

(Encyclopedia)Murphy, William Parry, 1892–1987, American physician, b. Stoughton, Wis., M.D. Harvard, 1920. He taught at Harvard from 1923 and was associated with the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, in Boston, from ...

Hayne, Paul Hamilton

(Encyclopedia)Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 1830–86, American poet, b. Charleston, S.C., grad. Charleston College. Considered the last of the Southern literary cavaliers, he wrote a book of nature poetry (1855) and edite...