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Lorde, Audrey Geraldine

(Encyclopedia)Lorde, Audre, 1934–1992, African-American poet, essayist, and civil rights activist, b. New York City, grad. Columbia (M.L.S. 1961). Lorde was born to...

Cohen, Leonard Norman

(Encyclopedia)Cohen, Leonard Norman, 1934–2016, Canadian songwriter, singer, and poet, b. Montreal, B.A. McGill Univ., 1955. He initially wrote poetry, publishing his first collection, Let Us Compare Mythologies,...

Catherine of Siena, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Catherine of Siena, Saint sēĕnˈə [key], 1347–80, Italian mystic and diplomat, a member of the third order of the Dominicans, Doctor of the Church. The daughter of Giacomo Benincasa, a Sienese dy...

Munro, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Munro, Alice, 1931–, Canadian writer, b. Wingham, Ont., as Alice Ann Laidlaw. Much acclaimed as one of the finest contemporary short-story writers, Munro is known for quiet, insightfully realistic, ...

NASCAR

(Encyclopedia)NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1948 and began its first and...

Robinson, Jackie

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, Jackie (Jack Roosevelt Robinson), 1919–72, American baseball player, the first African-American player in the modern major leagues, b. Cairo, Ga. He grew up in Pasadena, Calif., where he b...

Seminole

(Encyclopedia)Seminole, Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They separated (their name means “separatist”)...

typography

(Encyclopedia)typography tīpŏgˈrəfē [key], the art of printing from movable type. The term typographer is today virtually synonymous with a master printer skilled in the techniques of type and paper stock sele...

heraldry

(Encyclopedia)heraldry, system in which inherited symbols, or devices, called charges are displayed on a shield, or escutcheon, for the purpose of identifying individuals or families. In the Middle Ages the herald,...

Gunpowder Plot

(Encyclopedia)Gunpowder Plot, conspiracy to blow up the English Parliament and King James I on Nov. 5, 1605, the day set for the king to open Parliament. It was intended to be the beginning of a great uprising of E...