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Parks, Gordon

(Encyclopedia)Parks, Gordon (Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks), 1912–2006, African-American photographer, filmmaker, writer, and composer, b. Fort Scott, Kans. Parks purchased his first camera in 1938 and be...

Hildegard of Bingen, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Hildegard of Bingen, Saint hĭlˈdəgärthˌ, bĭngˈən [key], 1098–1179, German nun, mystic, composer, writer, and cultural figure, Doctor of the Church, known as the Sibyl of the Rhine. An aristo...

Hine, Lewis

(Encyclopedia)Hine, Lewis (Lewis Wickes Hine), 1874–1940, American photographer, b. Oshkosh, Wis. Hine dedicated much of his photographic career, which began shortly after he bought his first camera in 1903, to e...

Johnson, Alexander Bryan

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Alexander Bryan, 1786–1867, American philosopher and semanticist, b. Gosport, England. He immigrated (1801) to the United States and eventually became a wealthy banker in Utica, N.Y. Johnso...

Strauss, David Friedrich

(Encyclopedia)Strauss, David Friedrich däˈvēt frēˈdrĭkh shtrous [key], 1808–74, German theologian and philosopher. In Berlin he studied (1831–32) Hegelian philosophy. As tutor at Tübingen he lectured on ...

Bearden, Romare

(Encyclopedia)Bearden, Romare rōmâr bĭrˈdən [key], 1911–88, American painter and collagist, b. Charlotte, N.C. Bearden grew up in Harlem and studied at New York Univ. and the Art Students League, New York Ci...

Sirk, Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Sirk, Douglas, 1900–87, German-American film director, b. Hamburg as Claus Detlef Sierck. A successful director in German theater and film, he fled the Nazi regime in 1937. Two years later he emigra...

Peele, George

(Encyclopedia)Peele, George, 1558?–1597?, English playwright, educated at Oxford. He experimented in a variety of forms, including the pageant, history, pastoral, comedy, and melodrama, but his best-known work is...

Wright, Elizur

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Elizur ĭlīˈzər [key], 1804–85, American actuary and antislavery leader, b. near Canaan, Conn., grad. Yale, 1826. He taught (1829–33) mathematics at Western Reserve College. In 1833 he ...

Zhang Xianliang

(Encyclopedia)Zhang Xianliang jäng shyän-lyäng [key], 1936–, Chinese writer. During the 1957 antirightist campaign, the Chinese Communists judged his poetry deviant and sentenced him to prison in Ningxia. He w...