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Boas, Franz

(Encyclopedia)Boas, Franz bōˈăz, –ăs [key], 1858–1942, German-American anthropologist, b. Minden, Germany, Ph.D. Univ. of Kiel, 1881. He joined an expedition to Baffin Island in 1883 and initiated his field...

Rushdie, Sir Salman

(Encyclopedia)Rushdie, Sir Salman sälmänˈ ro͞oshˈdē [key], 1947–, British novelist, b. Bombay (now Mumbai, India). He is known for the allusive richness of his language and the wide variety of Eastern and W...

Australian literature

(Encyclopedia)Australian literature, the literature of Australia. Because the vast majority of early Australian settlers were transported prisoners, the beginnings of Australian literature were oral rather than wri...

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

Winchester, cities, United States

(Encyclopedia)Winchester wĭnˈchĕˌstər, wĭnˈchĭstər [key]. 1 Town (1990 pop. 11,524), Litchfield co., NW Conn., in the Litchfield Hills; settled 1732, inc. 1771. It includes Winsted (1990 pop. 8,254), an in...

temperance movements

(Encyclopedia)temperance movements, organized efforts to induce people to abstain—partially or completely—from alcoholic beverages. Such movements occurred in ancient times, but ceased until the wide use of dis...

British Columbia

(Encyclopedia)CE5 British Columbia, province, 366,255 sq mi (948,600 sq km), including 6,976 sq mi (18,068 sq km) of water surface, W Canada. The Conservatives ...

Francis Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Francis Joseph or Franz Joseph, 1830–1916, emperor of Austria (1848–1916), king of Hungary (1867–1916), nephew of Ferdinand, who abdicated in his favor. His long reign began in the stormy days o...

Indian literature

(Encyclopedia)Indian literature. Oral literature in the vernacular languages of India is of great antiquity, but it was not until about the 16th cent. that an extensive written literature appeared. Chief factors in...

Montana

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Montana mŏntănˈə [key], Rocky Mt. state in the NW United States. It is bounded by North Dakota and South Dakota (E), Wyoming (S), Idaho (W), and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, ...