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Rhodes, James Ford

(Encyclopedia)Rhodes, James Ford rōdz [key], 1848–1927, American historian, b. Ohio City (now part of Cleveland). While studying in Europe he visited ironworks and steelworks in Germany and Great Britain, and up...

Robinson, James Harvey

(Encyclopedia)Robinson, James Harvey, 1863–1936, American historian, b. Bloomington, Ill. He taught history at the Univ. of Pennsylvania (1891–95) and Columbia (1895–1919), becoming a full professor in 1895. ...

Perry, William James

(Encyclopedia)Perry, William James, 1927–, U.S. government official, b. Vandergrift, Pa. A Ph.D. in mathematics, former Stanford engineering professor, and founder of a military electronics firm, he served (1977�...

Riley, James Whitcomb

(Encyclopedia)Riley, James Whitcomb, 1849–1916, American poet, b. Greenfield, Ind., known as the Hoosier poet. He was at various times a traveling actor, a sign painter, and a newspaperman. Under the name “Benj...

Brookings, Robert Somers

(Encyclopedia)Brookings, Robert Somers, 1850–1932, American businessman and philanthropist, b. Cecil co., Md. He earned a fortune in business in St. Louis, Mo., and retired in 1897 to devote himself to philanthro...

folk song

(Encyclopedia)folk song, music of anonymous composition, transmitted orally. The theory that folk songs were originally group compositions has been modified in recent studies. These assume that the germ of a folk m...

essay

(Encyclopedia)essay, relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view. Although ...

Forester, C. S.

(Encyclopedia)Forester, C. S. (Cecil Scott Forester), 1899–1966, British novelist, b. Cairo, Egypt, educated in England. A prolific and popular author, C. S. Forester is best known for his novels of the royal nav...

Beit, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Beit, Alfred bīt [key], 1853–1906, South African financier, b. Hamburg. He went to South Africa in 1875, grew rich from the development of diamond mines, and was a colleague and lieutenant of Cecil...

Beerbohm, Sir Max

(Encyclopedia)Beerbohm, Sir Max bērˈbōm [key], 1872–1956, English essayist, caricaturist, and parodist. He contributed to the famous Yellow Book while still an undergraduate at Oxford. In 1898 he succeeded G. ...