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Stead, Christina

(Encyclopedia)Stead, Christina, 1902–83, Australian novelist, b. Rockdale, New South Wales. She worked in the United States in the 1940s, emigrated to England in 1953, then returned to Australia in 1974. Her nove...

Vance, Zebulon Baird

(Encyclopedia)Vance, Zebulon Baird, 1830–94, American political leader, Confederate governor of North Carolina (1862–65) in the Civil War, b. Buncombe co., N.C. A lawyer and a Whig, he served in the state legis...

Töpffer, Rodolphe

(Encyclopedia)Töpffer, Rodolphe rôdôlfˈ töpˈfər [key], 1799–1846, Swiss artist and writer, b. Geneva. Often called the father of the comic strip (or the graphic novel), he wanted to be a painter but found ...

Ur-Nammu

(Encyclopedia)Ur-Nammu ŭr-nämˈo͞o [key], fl. 2060 b.c., king of the ancient city of Ur, sometimes called Zur-Nammu or Ur-Engur. He founded a new Sumerian dynasty, the third dynasty of Ur, that lasted a century....

Sorenstam, Annika

(Encyclopedia)Sorenstam, Annika, 1970–, Swedish golfer. Acclaimed by many as golf's greatest female player, she dominated the game in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She played for the Swedish national team (1987...

Saxo Grammaticus

(Encyclopedia)Saxo Grammaticus săkˈsō grəmătˈĭkəs [key], c.1150–c.1220, the first important Danish historian. He was in the service of Absalon, archbishop of Lund, at whose suggestion Saxo wrote the Gesta...

schooner

(Encyclopedia)schooner sko͞oˈnər [key], sailing vessel, rigged fore-and-aft, with from two to seven masts. Schooners can lie closer to the wind than square-rigged sailing ships, need a smaller crew, and are very...

Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman

(Encyclopedia)Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman, American civil-rights workers in the South during the 1960s. Michael Schwerner (b. 1939) and Andrew Goodman (b. 1943), both white New Yorkers, went to Neshoba co., Miss...

Sender, Ramón José

(Encyclopedia)Sender, Ramón José rämōnˈhōsāˈsāndĕrˈ [key], 1902–82, Spanish novelist. A journalist, Sender fought on the side of the Loyalists in the Spanish civil war. He left Spain in 1938 and became...

Petropavlovsk, city, Russia

(Encyclopedia)Petropavlovsk kəmchätˈskē [key], city (1989 pop. 269,000), capital of Kamchatka Territory, Russian Far East. It is a major port and naval base on the Northern Sea Route, and there are shipyards an...