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Mitchum, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Mitchum, Robert (Robert Charles Duran Mitchum), 1917–97, American film actor, b. Bridgeport, Conn. He found extra work and bit parts in early 1940s movies, and first achieved wide notice for his sup...

Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman

(Encyclopedia)Lockyer, Sir Joseph Norman lŏkˈyər [key], 1836–1920, English astronomer, educated on the Continent. One of the first to make a spectroscopic examination of the sun and stars, he devised (1868), i...

Cabell, Branch

(Encyclopedia)Cabell, Branch (James Branch Cabell) kăˈbəl [key], 1879–1958, American novelist, b. Richmond, Va., grad. William and Mary, 1898. After various experiences as a journalist and a coal miner he bega...

Tandy, James Napper

(Encyclopedia)Tandy, James Napper, 1740–1803, Irish revolutionary. Originally a small tradesman in Dublin, he gained attention by his attacks on municipal corruption and his proposal to boycott English goods as a...

Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth

(Encyclopedia)Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth ālēzäbĕtˈ vēzhāˈ-ləbröNˈ [key], 1755–1842, French portrait painter; pupil of her father, the painter Louis Vigée. She was influenced by Greuze. Summoned to Vers...

Cowper, William

(Encyclopedia)Cowper, William ko͞oˈpər, kouˈ– [key], 1731–1800, English poet. Physically and emotionally unfit for the professional life, he was admitted to the bar but never practiced. After a battle with ...

Davies, Robertson

(Encyclopedia)Davies, Robertson (William Robertson Davies) dāˈvĭs [key], 1913–95, Canadian writer and editor. After receiving a B.Litt. from Oxford (1938), he joined the Old Vic Theatre Company before returnin...

Maier, Vivian

(Encyclopedia)Maier, Vivian, 1926–2009, American photographer, b. Bronx, N.Y. She spent much of her childhood and early adulthood in France, where she began photographing street scenes; she moved in 1951 to New Y...

Kipling, Rudyard

(Encyclopedia)Kipling, Rudyard, 1865–1936, English author, b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Educated in England, Kipling returned to India in 1882 and worked as an editor on a Lahore paper. His early poems were col...

Woods, Tiger

(Encyclopedia)Woods, Tiger (Eldrick Woods), 1975–, American golfer, b. Cypress, Calif. The son of an African-American father and a Thai mother, he was a college star at Stanford and became the only three-time (19...