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Black, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Black, Hugh, 1868–1953, Scottish-American theologian and author. After serving as a pastor in Paisley and Edinburgh, he emigrated to the United States in 1906 to begin a professorship of practical t...

Savage, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Savage, Richard, 1697?–1743, English poet. The now discredited story of his illegitimate descent from a noble line and of his persecutions, which are set forth in a biography by Samuel Johnson, won ...

Defoe, Daniel

(Encyclopedia)Defoe or De Foe, Daniel dĭfōˈ [key], 1660?–1731, English writer, b. London. He was nearly sixty when he turned to writing novels. In 1719 he published his famous Life and Strange Surprising Adv...

monsters and imaginary beasts

(Encyclopedia)monsters and imaginary beasts. The mythologies and legends of ancient and modern cultures teem with an enormous variety of monsters and imaginary beasts. A great number of these are composites of diff...

Carver, Raymond

(Encyclopedia)Carver, Raymond, 1938–88, American short-story writer, b. Clatskanie, Oreg. He was raised in the Pacific Northwest, where he often set his sparely written tales of everyday blue-collar life. His per...

xenon

(Encyclopedia)xenon zēˈnŏn [key] [Gr.,=strange], gaseous chemical element; symbol Xe; at. no. 54; at. wt. 131.293; m.p. −111.9℃; b.p. −107.1℃; density 5.86 grams per liter at STP; valence usually 0. Xeno...

actinium

(Encyclopedia)actinium ăktĭnˈēəm [key] [Gr.,=like a ray], radioactive chemical element; symbol Ac; at. no. 89; mass number of most stable isotope 227; m.p. about 1,050℃; b.p. 3,200℃±300℃; sp. gr. 10.07;...

Perot, H. Ross

(Encyclopedia)Perot, H. Ross (Henry Ross Perot), 1930–2019, American business executive and political leader, b. Texarkana, Tex., as Henry Ray Perot, grad. Annapolis, 1953. In 1957 he resigned his naval commissio...

Dudley, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Dudley, Thomas, 1576–1653, colonial governor of Massachusetts, b. England. As a young man he served as a clerk and later as steward to the earl of Lincoln. In 1630 he emigrated to America as deputy ...

Alden, Henry Mills

(Encyclopedia)Alden, Henry Mills ôlˈdən [key], 1836–1919, American editor, b. Mt. Tabor, Vt. He was editor of Harper's Magazine from 1869 until his death. A highly religious and fastidious man, he directed his...