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sky

(Encyclopedia)sky, apparent dome over the earth, background of the clouds, sun, moon, and stars. The blue color of the clear daytime sky results from the selective scattering of light rays by the minute particles o...

Devils Island

(Encyclopedia)Devils Island, Fr. Île du Diable, the smallest and southernmost of the Îles du Salut, in the Caribbean Sea off French Guiana. A penal colony founded in 1852, it was used largely for political prison...

Hemans, Felicia Dorothea (Browne)

(Encyclopedia)Hemans, Felicia Dorothea (Browne) hĕmˈənz [key], 1793–1835, English poet. She married Capt. Alfred Hemans in 1812, had five children, and separated from him in 1818. Although she wrote much mild ...

Hasting

(Encyclopedia)Hasting hāˈstĭng [key], fl. last half of 9th cent., leader of the Vikings, called Hasting the Pirate. He ravaged the coasts of France, Spain, and Italy, went into Morocco, plundered in the south of...

Mallet, David

(Encyclopedia)Mallet or Malloch, David mălˈĭt, –əkh [key], c.1705–1765, English poet and dramatist, b. Scotland. His best-known work is the ballad William and Margaret (1720). Although he wrote several trag...

La Baie

(Encyclopedia)La Baie lə bī [key], city (1991 pop. 20,995), S Que., Canada, on Ha! Ha! Bay, an arm of the Saguenay River. Formed by the amalgamation of Bagotville, Port Alfred, and the parishes of Grande-Baie and...

Brandy Station

(Encyclopedia)Brandy Station, small trading center, Culpeper co., Va. It was the scene of the greatest cavalry engagement of the Civil War (also called the battle of Fleetwood Hill), fought June 9, 1863. Gen. Alfre...

Sexton, Anne

(Encyclopedia)Sexton, Anne (Harvey), 1928–74, American poet, b. Newton, Mass. Educated at Garland Junior College and at Radcliffe, she worked briefly as a fashion model in Boston. Her “confessional poetry” is...

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

(Encyclopedia)Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, collective name given several English monastic chronicles in Anglo-Saxon, all stemming from a compilation made from old annals and other sources c.891. Although the work was tho...

André, Brother

(Encyclopedia)André, Brother äNdrāˈ, änˈ– [key], 1845–1937, Canadian Roman Catholic mystic, b. St. Grégoire d'Iberville, Que. His secular name was Alfred Bissette, Bassette, or Bessette. For about 40 yea...