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Romney, George Wilcken

(Encyclopedia)Romney, George Wilcken rŏmˈnē [key], 1907–95, U.S. public official, b. Mexico, of American parents. He worked (1920–30) as a Senate staff tariff specialist and then entered industry. He became ...

C.I.A.M.

(Encyclopedia)C.I.A.M. (Congrès internationaux d'architecture moderne). Founded in 1928 by Hélène de Mandrot, Sigfried Giedion, and Le Corbusier, C.I.A.M. sought to divert architecture from academic preoccupatio...

Coburn, Alvin Langdon

(Encyclopedia)Coburn, Alvin Langdon kōˈbûrn [key], 1882–1936, American photographer, b. Boston. Coburn began making photographs at eight and was one of the younger members of Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession...

Üsküdar

(Encyclopedia)Üsküdar sko͞oˈtərē [key], urban district, part of İstanbul, Turkey, on the Asian side of the Bosporus. It is a commercial and industrial center. Known as Chrysopolis in ancient times, it enjoye...

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...

local government

(Encyclopedia)local government, political administration of the smallest subdivisions of a country's territory and population. The British system of local government, which has been the model for most of that cou...