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Fessenden, Thomas Green

(Encyclopedia)Fessenden, Thomas Green fĕsˈəndən [key], 1771–1837, American journalist and satirical poet, b. Walpole, N.H. Throughout his life he practiced law and edited various newspapers. Under the pseudon...

Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de

(Encyclopedia)Maintenon, Françoise d'Aubigné, marquise de fräNswäzˈ dōbēnyāˈ märkēzˈ də măNtənôNˈ [key], 1635–1719, second wife of the French king Louis XIV. Her grandfather was Théodore Agrippa...

Fedin, Konstantin Aleksandrovich

(Encyclopedia)Fedin, Konstantin Aleksandrovich kənstəntyēnˈ əlyĭksänˈdrəvĭch fyĕdyēnˈ [key], 1892–1977, Russian novelist. Fedin was interned in Germany during World War I and returned to Russia in 19...

Nikon

(Encyclopedia)Nikon nēˈkōn [key], 1605–81, Russian churchman, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (1652–66). He undertook an extremely vigorous reform of church discipline and ritual with a view to purg...

Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean

(Encyclopedia)Christmas Island, tropical island, 60 sq mi (155 sq km), an external territory of Australia, in the Indian Ocean c.200 mi (320 km) S of Java. The majori...

Régnier, Henri de

(Encyclopedia)Régnier, Henri de äNrēˈ də rānyāˈ [key], 1864–1936, French poet, one of the young symbolists of the circle of Mallarmé. His early Poèmes anciens et romanesques (1891) showed skill in free ...

Sorokin, Vladimir Georgevich

(Encyclopedia)Sorokin, Vladimir Georgevich, 1955–, Russian writer. Trained as an engineer, he turned to Moscow's underground writing world in the 1980s. His iconoclastic work was banned by the Soviets; his first ...

Metastasio, Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Metastasio, Pietro pyĕˈtrō mātästäˈzēō [key], 1698–1782, Italian poet and librettist, whose original name was Antonio Bonaventura Trapassi. A prodigy at poetic improvisation, he became cour...

Hurtado de Mendoza, Diego

(Encyclopedia)Hurtado de Mendoza, Diego dyāˈgō o͞ortäˈdhō dā māndōˈthä [key], 1503—75, Spanish poet, historian, and statesman, b. Granada. An ambassador of Charles V to England and Venice and at the C...

Fréchette, Louis Honoré

(Encyclopedia)Fréchette, Louis Honoré lwē ônôrāˈ frāshĕtˈ [key], 1839–1908, French Canadian poet and politician, b. Lévis, Que. He worked (1865–71) as a journalist in Chicago and while there wrote a ...