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Bodley, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Bodley, Sir Thomas, 1545–1613, English scholar and diplomat, organizer of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He was a Greek scholar and teacher at Oxford, and in 1584 he was elected to Parliament. He s...

Vikings

(Encyclopedia)Vikings, Scandinavian warriors who raided the coasts of Europe and the British Isles from the 9th cent. to the 11th cent. In their language, the word “viking” originally meant a journey, as for tr...

Wharton, Edith Newbold Jones

(Encyclopedia)Wharton, Edith Newbold Jones, 1862–1937, American novelist, b. New York City, noted for her subtle, ironic, and superbly crafted fictional studies of New York society at the turn of the 20th cent. T...

Shevchenko, Taras Hryhorovych

(Encyclopedia)Shevchenko, Taras, 1814–1861, Ukrainian poet, writer, and artist, b. Ukraine, studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art. The premier Ukrainian poet...

Proust, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Proust, Marcel pro͞ost [key], 1871–1922, French novelist, b. Paris. He is one of the great literary figures of the modern age. Born to wealthy bourgeois parents, he suffered delicate health as a c...

Alger, Horatio

(Encyclopedia)Alger, Horatio ălˈjər [key], 1834–99, American writer of boys' stories, b. Revere, Mass. He wrote over 100 books for boys, the first, Ragged Dick, being published in 1867. By leading exemplary li...

Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin von

(Encyclopedia)Droste-Hülshoff, Annette Elisabeth, Freiin or Baroness von änĕtˈə ālēˈzäbĕt frīˈĭn fən drôsˈtə-hülsˈhôf [key], 1797–1848, German poet. Often called the greatest German woman poet...

Cram, Ralph Adams

(Encyclopedia)Cram, Ralph Adams, 1863–1942, American architect, b. Hampton Falls, N.H. An ardent exponent of Gothic architecture, Cram produced many collegiate and ecclesiastical works in a neo-Gothic style. Amon...

Curtis, Benjamin Robbins

(Encyclopedia)Curtis, Benjamin Robbins, 1809–74, American jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1851–57), b. Watertown, Mass. After studying law at Harvard, he practiced at Northfield, Mass., and...

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