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Geoffrey of Monmouth

(Encyclopedia)Geoffrey of Monmouth mŏnˈməth [key], c.1100–1154, English author. He was probably born at Monmouth and was of either Breton or Welsh descent. In 1152 he was named bishop of St. Asaph in Wales. Hi...

Cornell, Alonzo B.

(Encyclopedia)Cornell, Alonzo B. kôrnĕlˈ [key], 1832–1904, American businessman and politician, b. Ithaca, N.Y. Cornell was a director (1868–69) and vice president (1870–76) of the Western Union Telegraph ...

Foster, Jodie

(Encyclopedia)Foster, Jodie (Alicia Christian Foster), 1962–, American actress and film director, b. Los Angeles, Yale Univ. (B.A., 1985). A child model, she began ...

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 ...

Davis, David

(Encyclopedia)Davis, David, 1815–86, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1862–77), b. Cecil co., Md., grad. Kenyon College, 1832; cousin of Henry Winter Davis. In 1836 he settled as a ...

Adler, Larry

(Encyclopedia)Adler, Larry (Lawrence Cecil Adler) ădˈlər [key], 1914–2001, American harmonica player, b. Baltimore. Adler, whose career spanned seven decades, is generally credited with elevating the harmonica...

Lady of the Lake

(Encyclopedia)Lady of the Lake, in Arthurian legend, a misty, supernatural figure endowed with magic powers, who gave the sword Excalibur to King Arthur. She inhabited a castle in an underwater kingdom. According t...

Folger, Charles James

(Encyclopedia)Folger, Charles James fōlˈjər [key], 1818–84, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1881–84), b. Nantucket, Mass. A lawyer of Geneva, N.Y., he held judicial posts and was (1861–69) a state senator....

Hunt, Henry

(Encyclopedia)Hunt, Henry, 1773–1835, English radical politician. A powerful orator, popular with the laboring classes, Hunt was quarrelsome and stubborn but a sincere proponent of electoral and other reforms. He...

Perley, Sir George Halsey

(Encyclopedia)Perley, Sir George Halsey, 1857–1938, Canadian statesman, b. Lebanon, N.H. As a child, he moved with his parents to Ottawa. In 1904 he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative,...