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Knopf, Alfred A.

(Encyclopedia)Knopf, Alfred A. (Alfred Abraham Knopf) kənŏpfˈ, nŏpf [key], 1892–1984, American publisher, b. New York City. After working (1912–14) for the Doubleday, Page Publishing Company, he founded (19...

Beaumont, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Beaumont, Francis bōˈmŏnt [key], 1584?–1616, English dramatist. Born of a distinguished family, he studied at Oxford and the Inner Temple. His literary reputation is linked with that of John Flet...

ragweed

(Encyclopedia)ragweed, any plant of the genus Ambrosia, coarse, weedy herbs belonging to the family Asteraceae (aster family), most of which are native to America. They have inconspicuous greenish flowers and soft ...

Rochelle salt

(Encyclopedia)Rochelle salt, colorless to blue-white orthorhombic crystalline salt with a saline, cooling taste. It is also called Seignette salt after Pierre Seignette, an apothecary of La Rochelle, France, who wa...

Chambers, Sir William

(Encyclopedia)Chambers, Sir William, 1723–96, English architect, b. Gothenburg, Sweden. He traveled extensively in the East Indies and in China making drawings of gardens and buildings, many of which were later p...

happening

(Encyclopedia)happening, an artistic event of a theatrical nature, but usually improvised spontaneously without the framework of a plot. The term originated with the creation and performance in 1959 of Allan Kaprow...

Freer, Charles Lang

(Encyclopedia)Freer, Charles Lang frēr [key], 1856–1919, American art collector, b. Kingston, N.Y. He gave to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., his entire collection and the building (designed acc...

Frist, Bill

(Encyclopedia)Frist, Bill (William Harrison Frist), 1952–, American politician and physician, b. Nashville, Tenn., grad. Princeton (B.A., 1974), Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1978). From a distinguished medical f...

Meyerbeer, Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Meyerbeer, Giacomo jäˈkōmō mīˈyərbĕr [key], 1791–1864, German operatic composer. He traveled in Italy and experimented in various styles of composition, but his real success came only with h...

Certosa di Pavia

(Encyclopedia)Certosa di Pavia chārtôˈzä dē pävēˈä [key], former Carthusian abbey of Pavia. One of the most magnificent of all monastic structures, it has been maintained as a national monument since 1866....