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Plano

(Encyclopedia)Plano plāˈnō [key], city (1990 pop. 128,713), Collin co., N Tex., less than 20 mi (32 km) NE of Dallas; inc. 1873. In a farm and livestock area on the blackland prairie, Plano is a booming financia...

Wägner, Elin

(Encyclopedia)Wägner, Elin āˈlĭn vĕgˈnĕr [key], 1882–1949, Swedish novelist. Wägner was a leading feminist of her day. In early works such as Pennskaftet [the penholder] (1910), she deals with the social,...

Wellington

(Encyclopedia)Wellington, city (1996 pop. 157,647; urban agglomeration 334,051), capital of New Zealand, extreme S North Island, on Port Nicholson, an inlet of Cook Strait. Socially and economically linked with Hut...

black humor

(Encyclopedia)black humor, in literature, drama, and film, grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usu...

Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth

(Encyclopedia)Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth hyälˈmär hyôrt boiˈĕsĕn [key], 1848–95, American writer, b. Norway, educated at the universities of Leipzig and Christiania (Ph.D., 1868). He came to the United States...

Northumberland, Henry Percy, 4th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Northumberland, Henry Percy, 4th earl of, 1446–89, English nobleman. When his father, the 3d earl, was killed fighting in the Lancastrian army at Towton (1461), he was imprisoned by Edward IV and th...

Montluc, Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de

(Encyclopedia)Montluc or Monluc, Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de blĕz də läsräNˈ-mäsäNkômˈ, sānyörˈ də môNlükˈ [key], c.1502–1577, marshal of France. A Gascon soldier of fortune, he fo...

Ladislaus III, king of Poland

(Encyclopedia)Ladislaus III, 1424–44, king of Poland (1434–44) and, as Uladislaus I, king of Hungary (1440–44), son of Ladislaus II. He led two crusades against the Ottomans; the first (1443) was highly succe...

Gell, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Gell, Sir William gĕl [key], 1777–1836, English archaeologist. He served as chamberlain to Caroline, consort of the prince of Wales (later George IV), and accompanied her to Italy in 1814. His orig...

George of Trebizond

(Encyclopedia)George of Trebizond trĕbˈĭzŏnd [key], c.1396–1486, Greek scholar, b. Crete. Settling in Venice, he taught Greek, philosophy, and rhetoric there and in Vicenza before going to Rome in 1442. He be...

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