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Knowles, John

(Encyclopedia)Knowles, John, 1926–2001, American writer, b. Fairmont, W. Va., grad. Yale, 1949. He is best known for his semiautobiographical first novel, A Separate Peace (1960), a coming-of-age story about a bo...

Kane, John

(Encyclopedia)Kane, John, 1860–1934, American primitive painter, b. Scotland. He came to Pittsburgh at the age of 19 and worked for years as a day laborer, painting in his spare time. His paintings exhibit a deli...

Widener, Harry Elkins

(Encyclopedia)Widener, Harry Elkins wīdˈnər [key], 1885–1912, American bibliophile, b. Philadelphia. He had the greatest Robert Louis Stevenson collection in existence. Widener died at the age of 27 on the Tit...

muscular dystrophy

(Encyclopedia)muscular dystrophy dĭsˈtrōfē [key], any of several inherited diseases characterized by progressive wasting of the skeletal muscles. There are five main forms of the disease. They are classified ac...

cire perdue

(Encyclopedia)cire perdue sēr pĕrdüˈ [key] [Fr.,=lost wax], sculptural process of metal casting that may be used for hollow and solid casting. The sculptor makes a model in plaster or clay that is then coated w...

Archipenko, Alexander

(Encyclopedia)Archipenko, Alexander ärkhĭpĕnˈkō [key], 1887–1964, Ukrainian-American sculptor, b. Kiev. He moved to Moscow in 1906 and to Paris in 1908. There he began to adapt cubist technique to sculpture....

Vischer, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Vischer, Peter fĭshˈər [key], the elder, c.1455–1529, German sculptor, foremost of the bronze founders in Germany. Beginning as the assistant of his father, Hermann Vischer, Peter set up his own...

craquelure

(Encyclopedia)craquelure krăklo͝orˈ [key], hairline surface cracking of paintings into characteristic patterns determined by age, climatic conditions, and the materials used in the work. Cracking was so common i...

Fitzsimmons, Robert L.

(Encyclopedia)Fitzsimmons, Robert L., 1863–1918, British boxer, b. Cornwall, England. Fitzsimmons began fighting professionally in Australia and New Zealand before going to the United States in 1890. He won the w...

Mswati III

(Encyclopedia)Mswati III, 1968–, king of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Given the title of Prince Makhosetive at an early age, he was crowned king in 1986, following a regency after his father, King Sobhuza II, d...