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Godwin, William

(Encyclopedia)Godwin, William, 1756–1836, English author and political philosopher. A minister in his youth, he was, however, plagued by religious doubts and gave up preaching in 1783 for a literary career. His E...

Godwin

(Encyclopedia)Godwin or Godwineboth: gd´wn [key], d. 1053, earl of Wessex. He became chief adviser to King Canute, was created (c.1018) an earl, and was given great wealth and lands. After Canute's death (1035...

Godwin, Parke

(Encyclopedia)Godwin, Parke, 1816–1904, American journalist, b. Paterson, N.J. He became associated while working on the New York Evening Post with William Cullen Bryant, whose daughter he married. He later publi...

Edward the Confessor

(Encyclopedia)Edward the Confessor, d. 1066, king of the English (1042–66), son of Æthelred the Unready and his Norman wife, Emma. After the Danish conquest (1013–16) of England, Edward grew up at the Norman c...

Woodson, Carter Godwin

(Encyclopedia)Woodson, Carter Godwin, 1875–1950, African-American educator, b. New Canton, Va., Ph.D. Harvard (1912). He taught at Howard Univ. and helped organize (1915) the Association for the Study of Negro Li...

Harold

(Encyclopedia)Harold, 1022?–1066, king of England (1066). The son of Godwin, earl of Wessex, he belonged to the most powerful noble family of England in the reign of Edward the Confessor. Through Godwin's influen...

Holcroft, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Holcroft, Thomas hl´krôft [key], 1745–1809, English dramatist and novelist. Sometimes credited with having introduced melodrama to the London stage, he is the author of the sentimental play The ...

Wollstonecraft, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Wollstonecraft, Mary wool´stnkräft, –krft [key], 1759–97, English author and feminist, b. London. She was an early proponent of educational equality between men and women, expressing this ...

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