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John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

(Encyclopedia)John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, philanthropic institution founded 1978 by John D. MacArthur (1897–1978), owner of a prominent insurance company and other businesses, and his wife Cath...

rap music

(Encyclopedia)rap music or hip-hop, African-American popular music style that originated in the mid-to-late ‘70s, which incorporates DJing, MCing, dance, and fashion. See studies by M. Costello and D....

symbolists

(Encyclopedia)symbolists, in literature, a school originating in France toward the end of the 19th cent. in reaction to the naturalism and realism of the period. Designed to convey impressions by suggestion rather ...

Ritchie, Anne Isabella Thackeray, Lady

(Encyclopedia)Ritchie, Anne Isabella Thackeray, Lady, 1837–1919, English writer; eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray. In 1877 she married a cousin, Richmond T. W. Ritchie (knighted 1907). She wrote sev...

academic freedom

(Encyclopedia)academic freedom, right of scholars to pursue research, to teach, and to publish without control or restraint from the institutions that employ them. It is a civil right that is enjoyed, at least in s...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(Encyclopedia)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space e...

Early, Jubal Anderson

(Encyclopedia)Early, Jubal Anderson, 1816–94, Confederate general, b. Franklin co., Va., grad. West Point, 1837. After fighting against the Seminole in Florida he resigned from the army (1838), studied law, and p...

Fowles, John

(Encyclopedia)Fowles, John, 1926–2005, English writer, b. Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, grad. Oxford, 1950. A complex, cerebral writer and a superb storyteller, Fowles was interested in manipulating the novel as a genre. ...

Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh

(Encyclopedia)Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh, 1801–66, English woman of letters; wife of Thomas Carlyle, whom she married in 1826. She possessed a genius for letter writing, manifest in the volumes of her published ...

Whittier, John Greenleaf

(Encyclopedia)Whittier, John Greenleaf hwĭtˈēər [key], 1807–92, American Quaker poet and reformer, b. near Haverhill, Mass. Whittier was a pioneer in regional literature as well as a crusader for many humanit...