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Oscar I

(Encyclopedia)Oscar I, 1799–1859, king of Sweden and Norway (1844–59), son and successor of Charles XIV. His reign was one of social and economic advance. His book on the reform of criminal law and prisons had ...

Mazarin Bible

(Encyclopedia)Mazarin Bible măzˈərĭn [key], considered to be the first important work printed by Gutenberg and the earliest book printed from movable types. The Bible, printed at Mainz, probably required severa...

Spock, Benjamin McLane

(Encyclopedia)Spock, Benjamin McLane, 1903–98, American author and pediatrician, b. New Haven, Conn., educ. Yale (B.A., 1925) and Columbia Univ. College of Physicians and Surgeons (M.D., 1929). In 1946, Dr. Spock...

Matthiessen, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Matthiessen, Peter măthˈəsən [key], American writer, naturalist, and adventurer, b. New York City, grad. Yale (1950). A founder (1951) of the literary Paris Review, he published his first novel, R...

mutation

(Encyclopedia)mutation, in biology, a sudden, random change in a gene, or unit of hereditary material, that can alter an inheritable characteristic. Most mutations are not beneficial, since any change in the delica...

Sirach, person in the Bible

(Encyclopedia)Sirach sīˈrək [key], the father of the author of the book of Sirach. ...

Quarles, Francis

(Encyclopedia)Quarles, Francis, 1592–1644, English poet. His best-known work is Emblems (1635), a book of moral and religious verse. Though not an ardent royalist, he wrote pamphlets during the Commonwealth uphol...

Marceau, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Marceau, Marcel märsĕlˈ märsōˈ [key], 1923–2007, French mime, b. Strasbourg as Marcel Mangel. Marceau studied under Charles Dullin and master mime Étienne Decroux in Paris. He gained renown i...

Frame, Janet

(Encyclopedia)Frame, Janet (Janet Paterson Frame Clutha) klo͞oˈthə [key], 1924–2004, New Zealand novelist, b. Dunedin. Frame's complex, disturbing novels are marked by startling images and masterful language. ...

Hazerim

(Encyclopedia)Hazerim həzēˈrĭm, hăzˈə– [key], Hebrew word meaning villages. It is erroneously given in ancient translations as the name of a place. It occurs in the Book of Deuteronomy. ...