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Baker, Newton Diehl

(Encyclopedia)Baker, Newton Diehl, 1871–1937, U.S. Secretary of War (1916–21), b. Martinsburg, W.Va. He practiced law and politics in Cleveland as a protégé of Tom L. Johnson. As city solicitor (1902–12) he...

Puttenham, George

(Encyclopedia)Puttenham, George pŭtˈənəm [key], d. 1590, English author. The Arte of English Poesie (1589), generally considered the best treatise on English versification of its time, has been attributed to hi...

Beowulf

(Encyclopedia)Beowulf bāˈəwo͝olf [key], oldest English epic, probably composed in the early 8th cent. by an Anglian bard in the vicinity of Northumbria. It survives in only one manuscript, written c.a.d. 1000 b...

Barmakids

(Encyclopedia)Barmakids bärˈməsīdzˌ [key], Persian-descended religious family from Khorasan. They served as viziers to the Abbasid caliphs in the 8th cent. Khalid ibn Barmak, d. 782?, supported the revolution ...

Malory, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Malory, Sir Thomas mălˈərē [key], d. 1471, English author of Morte d'Arthur. It is almost certain that he was Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revell, Warwickshire. Knighted in 1442, he served in the ...

De Mille, Cecil B.

(Encyclopedia)De Mille, Cecil B. (Cecil Blount De Mille), 1881–1959, American movie director and producer, b. Ashfield, Mass. In 1914, together with Samuel Goldwyn, he made the first feature-length film in Hollyw...

journalism

(Encyclopedia)journalism, the collection and periodic publication or transmission of news through media such as newspaper, periodical, television, and radio. By broadcasting events such as the Watergate hearin...

Gould, Jay

(Encyclopedia)Gould, Jay, 1836–92, American speculator, b. Delaware co., N.Y. A country-store clerk and surveyor's assistant, he rose to control half the railroad mileage in the Southwest, New York City's elevate...

Odinga, Raila Amolo

(Encyclopedia)Odinga, Raila Amolo ōdĭnˈgä [key] 1945–, Kenyan political leader, son of Oginga Odinga, Kenya's first vice president. After earning (1970) a degree in mechanical engineering from the Univ. of M...