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Henry, Patrick

(Encyclopedia)Henry, Patrick, 1736–99, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Hanover co., Va. Largely self-educated, he became a prominent trial lawyer. Henry bitterly denounced (1765) the Stamp Act and...

Maryknoll

(Encyclopedia)Maryknoll, headquarters of the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America, near Ossining, N.Y. A Roman Catholic community of priests (the “Maryknoll Fathers”) are there especially trained for for...

Diogenes Laërtius

(Encyclopedia)Diogenes Laërtius lāörˈshēəs [key], fl. early 3d cent., Greek biographer. Extant is a work in 10 books on the lives and opinions of the philosophers from Thales to Epicurus, with whole books dev...

Exmoor

(Encyclopedia)Exmoor, high moorland of the Cornwall peninsula, SW England, comprising much of Exmoor National Park (265 sq mi/686 sq km; est. 1954). Underlaid by slate and sandstone, the rugged region with wooded g...

fuzzy logic

(Encyclopedia)fuzzy logic, a multivalued (as opposed to binary) logic developed to deal with imprecise or vague data. Classical logic holds that everything can be expressed in binary terms: 0 or 1, black or white, ...

Robinson, Edwin Arlington

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 1869–1935, American poet, b. Head Tide, Maine, attended Harvard (1891–93). At his death, many critics considered Robinson the greatest poet in the United States. He is n...

Smollett, Tobias George

(Encyclopedia)Smollett, Tobias George smŏlˈĭt [key], 1721–71, Scottish novelist. After studying at Glasgow he came to London in 1739. Failing to get his tragedy The Regicide produced, he shipped as a surgeon's...

social science

(Encyclopedia)social science, term for any or all of the branches of study that deal with humans in their social relations. Often these studies are referred to in the plural as the social sciences. Although human s...

Styron, William

(Encyclopedia)Styron, William, 1925–2006, American novelist, b. Newport News, Va., grad. Duke, 1947. His fiction is often powerful, deeply felt, poetic, and elegiac. He became well known for his novel The Confess...

Comyn, John (Black Comyn), d. c.1300, Scottish nobleman

(Encyclopedia)Comyn, John kŭmˈĭn [key], d. c.1300, Scottish nobleman, known as the Black Comyn. In 1286 he became one of the six regents for Margaret Maid of Norway and, as such, agreed to the treaty of 1290, by...