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Fathers of the Church

(Encyclopedia)Fathers of the Church, collective name for the Christian writers of early times whose work is considered generally orthodox. A convenient definition includes all such writers up to and including St. G...

Leary, Timothy Francis

(Encyclopedia)Leary, Timothy Francis, 1920–96, American psychologist and educator, b. Springfield, Mass.; B.A., Univ. of Alabama, 1943; M.A., Washington State Univ.; Ph.D., Univ. of California at Berkeley, 1950. ...

Didion, Joan

(Encyclopedia)Didion, Joan dĭdˈēŏn [key], 1934–2021, American writer, b. Sacramento, Calif., Univ. of ...

Penn, Arthur Hiller

(Encyclopedia)Penn, Arthur Hiller, 1922–2010, American director, brother of Irving Penn, b. Philadelphia; studied Black Mountain College and the Actors' Studio, Los Angeles. Penn, who often dealt with themes of a...

Sabbatai Zevi

(Encyclopedia)Sabbatai Zevi säbätīˈ zāˈvē [key], 1626–76, Jewish mystic and pseudo-Messiah, founder of the Sabbatean sect, b. Smyrna. After a period of study of Lurianic kabbalah (see Luria, Isaac ben Solo...

Mercer, Johnny

(Encyclopedia)Mercer, Johnny (John Herndon Mercer) mûrˈsər [key], 1909–76, American lyricist and songwriter, b. Savannah, Ga. Mercer, who was one of American popular music's most accomplished wordsmiths, began...

Lucretius

(Encyclopedia)Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) lo͞okrēˈshəs [key], c.99 b.c.–c.55 b.c., Roman poet and philosopher. Little is known about his life. A chronicle of St. Jerome speaks of the loss of his reason ...

Esther

(Encyclopedia)Esther ĕsˈtər [key], book of the Bible. It is the tale of the beautiful Jewish woman Esther [Heb.,= Hadassah], who is chosen as queen by the Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I or II) after he has rep...

Robeson, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Robeson, Paul rōbˈsən [key], 1898–1976, American actor and bass singer, b. Princeton, N.J. The son of a runaway slave who became a minister, Robeson graduated first from Rutgers (1919), where he ...

Kimhi

(Encyclopedia)Kimhi kĭmˈkhē [key], family of Jewish scholars and grammarians in Spain and France. Joseph ben Isaac Kimhi, c.1105–c.1170, besides writing a Bible commentary, making numerous translations, and wr...