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Bay Psalm Book

(Encyclopedia)Bay Psalm Book, common hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Written by Richard Mather, John Eliot, and Thomas Weld, it was published in 1640 at Cambridge as The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Tran...

Walpole, Horace, 4th earl of Orford

(Encyclopedia)Walpole, Horace or Horatio, 4th earl of Orford, 1717–97, English author; youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he toured the Continent with his friend Thomas Gray from ...

Merthyr Tydfil

(Encyclopedia)Merthyr Tydfil mûrˈthər tĭdˈvĭl [key], town (1981 pop. 38,893) and county borough, 43 sq mi (111 sq km), S Wales. Located on the Taff River, the town is connected to Cardiff by canal. It has iro...

Meighen, Arthur

(Encyclopedia)Meighen, Arthur mēˈən [key], 1874–1960, Canadian political leader, b. Ontario. A lawyer, he began his career in Manitoba. Entering (1908) the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal-Conservative, ...

Johnson, Jimmie Kenneth

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Jimmie Kenneth, 1975–, American auto racer, b. El Cajon, Calif. Johnson began racing at five on motorcycles, progressed to off-road buggies and trucks as a teenager, and then to stock cars ...

King Ranch

(Encyclopedia)King Ranch, c.1,000,000 acres (404,700 hectares), S Tex., SW of Corpus Christi with headquarters at Kingsville, Tex.; one of the largest ranches in the world. It has several divisions, of which the be...

Graves, Thomas Graves, Baron

(Encyclopedia)Graves, Thomas Graves, Baron, 1725?–1802, British admiral. During the American Revolution his fleet was routed (1781) by the comte de Grasse at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, a defeat that led directl...

Green, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Green, Paul, 1894–1981, American dramatist, b. Lillington, N.C., grad. Univ. of North Carolina, 1921. He is known for his realistic plays depicting the lives of blacks and white tenant farmers. His ...

Esalen Institute

(Encyclopedia)Esalen Institute, organization est. 1962 by Michael Murphy and Richard Price that was an important center for the so-called human potential movement of the 1960s and 70s. Located in Big Sur, Calif., a...

Purchas, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Purchas, Samuel pûrˈkəs, –chəs [key], 1577?–1626, English clergyman and compiler of travel literature, b. Essex. Chaplain to the archbishop of Canterbury, he later was rector of St. Martin's C...