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Ponselle, Rosa

(Encyclopedia)Ponselle, Rosa pŏnzĕlˈ [key], 1897–1981, American operatic soprano, b. Meriden, Conn. First appearing in vaudeville, she made her debut (1918) at the Metropolitan Opera in Verdi's La forza del de...

Caldwell, Erskine

(Encyclopedia)Caldwell, Erskine kôldˈwəl [key], 1903–87, American author, b. White Oak, Ga. His realistic and earthy novels of the rural South include Tobacco Road (1933), God's Little Acre (1933), This Very E...

Brown, Helen Gurley

(Encyclopedia)Brown, Helen Gurley, 1922–2012, American writer and editor, b. Green Forest, Ark. A child of poverty, she became a successful advertising copywriter and wrote the best-selling Sex and the Single Gir...

Willing, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Willing, Thomas, 1731–1821, American merchant and financier, b. Philadelphia. He studied law in London. Returning to Philadelphia in 1749, he entered his father's business and later established with...

Walker, Francis Amasa

(Encyclopedia)Walker, Francis Amasa, 1840–97, American economist, statistician, and educator, b. Boston, grad. Amherst; son of Amasa Walker. In the Civil War he was brevetted brigadier general. Walker's activitie...

Warren, John

(Encyclopedia)Warren, John, 1753–1815, American surgeon, b. Roxbury, Mass.; grad. Harvard, 1771; brother of Joseph Warren. A leading surgeon of his time in New England, he served in the Revolution and was a found...

Waters, Alice

(Encyclopedia)Waters, Alice, 1944–, American chef and author whose advocacy of organically grown, locally produced seasonal food and of sustainable agriculture has influenced America's approach to food, b. Chatha...

Beecher, Lyman

(Encyclopedia)Beecher, Lyman, 1775–1863, American Presbyterian clergyman, b. New Haven, Conn., grad. Yale, 1797. In 1799 he became pastor at East Hampton, N.Y. While serving (1810–26) in the Congregational Chur...

Timrod, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Timrod, Henry, 1828–67, American poet, b. Charleston, S.C., studied at the Univ. of Georgia. He was known as “the laureate of the Confederacy.” Timrod became editor of the Columbia South Carolin...

Teresa, Mother

(Encyclopedia)Teresa, Mother (Saint Teresa of Calcutta), 1910–97, Roman Catholic missionary in India, winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, b. Skopje (now in North Macedonia) as Gonxha Agnes Bojaxhiu. Of Albanian...