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Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy

(Encyclopedia)Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy bēˈtən [key], 1904–80, English scenery and costume designer, photographer, writer, painter, and diarist. After designing his first stage show (1935), Beaton worked ...

Grail, Holy

(Encyclopedia)Grail, Holy, a feature of medieval legend and literature. It appears variously as a chalice, a cup, or a dish and sometimes as a stone or a caldron into which a bleeding lance drips. It was identified...

Windsor, town, United States

(Encyclopedia)Windsor wĭnˈzər [key], town (1990 pop. 27,817), Hartford co., N Conn., at the confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers, just N of Hartford. Settled by Plymouth Colony in 1633, the town w...

Kalckreuth, Leopold Karl Walter, Graf von

(Encyclopedia)Kalckreuth, Leopold Karl Walter, Graf von lāˈōpôlt kärl välˈtər gräf fən kälkˈroit [key], 1855–1928, German painter and graphic artist. He taught at the Weimar and Karlsruhe academies an...

Runciman, Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount

(Encyclopedia)Runciman, Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount rŭnˈsĭmən [key], 1870–1949, British shipping magnate and public official. He inherited his father's large shipping business. As a Liberal he served in Par...

Hall, Charles Francis

(Encyclopedia)Hall, Charles Francis, 1821–71, American arctic explorer, b. Rochester, N.H. He became interested in the many search expeditions for Sir John Franklin's party, and with Eskimo companions he explored...

Pearl, The

(Encyclopedia)Pearl, The, one of four Middle English alliterative poems, all contained in a manuscript of c.1400, composed in the West Midland dialect, almost certainly by the same anonymous author, who flourished ...

Chrétien de Troyes

(Encyclopedia)Chrétien de Troyes or Chrestien de Troyes both: krātyăNˈ də trwä [key], fl. 1170, French poet, author of the first great literary treatments of the Arthurian legend. His narrative romances, comp...

Citrine, Walter McLennan Citrine, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Citrine, Walter McLennan Citrine, 1st Baron sĭtrēnˈ [key], 1887–1983, English trade union leader. An electrician, he became district secretary of the electrical trade union in 1914 and rose to be...

Lockhart, John Gibson

(Encyclopedia)Lockhart, John Gibson, 1794–1854, Scottish editor, lawyer, literary critic, and biographer; son-in-law and biographer of Sir Walter Scott. A major contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, he also was ed...