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Gadara

(Encyclopedia)Gadara gădˈərə [key], ancient city of the Decapolis, the modern Umm Qays (Jordan), SE of the Sea of Galilee. Extensive ruins mark the site. This Gadara must be distinguished from Gadara, the capit...

Fort Washington

(Encyclopedia)Fort Washington, military post during the American Revolution, situated on the highest point of Manhattan island, New York City, overlooking the Hudson River opposite Fort Lee, N.J. It was a hastily b...

McLane, Louis

(Encyclopedia)McLane, Louis, 1786–1857, American statesman, b. Smyrna, Del. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1817–27) and in the Senate (1827–29), resigning to become minister to England (1829�...

Key, David McKendree

(Encyclopedia)Key, David McKendree, 1824–1900, American politician and jurist, b. Greene co., Tenn. He practiced law in Chattanooga, Tenn., from 1853 to 1870, except during the Civil War, when he was an officer i...

hyperbole

(Encyclopedia)hyperbole hīpûrˈbəlē [key], a figure of speech in which exceptional exaggeration is deliberately used for emphasis rather than deception. Andrew Marvell employed hyperbole throughout To His Coy M...

Dyk, Viktor

(Encyclopedia)Dyk, Viktor vĭkˈtôr dĭk [key], 1877–1931, Czech writer and nationalist. Dyk considered his novels, satires, short stories, plays, and poems as weapons in the struggle to free his country from Au...

Allen, William

(Encyclopedia)Allen, William, 1704–80, American jurist, b. Philadelphia. He and his father-in-law, Andrew Hamilton, decided the choice of Philadelphia instead of Chester as provincial capital, and he helped finan...

Feller, Bob

(Encyclopedia)Feller, Bob (Robert William Andrew Feller), 1918–2010, American baseball player, b. Van Meter, Iowa. Famous for his blazing fastball, he also had extraordinary curveballs and sinkers in his repertoi...

Giambono, Michele

(Encyclopedia)Giambono, Michele mēkĕˈlā jämbōˈnō [key], fl.1420–62, Venetian mosaicist and painter, whose original name was Michele Giovanni Boni. One of the last exponents of the international Gothic sty...

Deller, Alfred

(Encyclopedia)Deller, Alfred, 1912–79, English countertenor. He began his career as a chorister in his parish church. From 1940–47 he was a lay clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, and in 1947 he was appointed to the...