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Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth

(Encyclopedia)Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth, 1917–2000, American poet, b. Topeka, Kans. She grew up in the slums of Chicago and lived in that city until her death. Brooks's poems, technically accomplished and writt...

Stanwyck, Barbara

(Encyclopedia)Stanwyck, Barbara, 1907–90, American stage, film, and television actress, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Ruby Stevens. She started as a chorus girl, was in the Ziegfeld Follies (1923–24) and performed on B...

Lessing, Doris

(Encyclopedia)Lessing, Doris, 1919–2013, British novelist, b. Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran) as Doris May Tayler. Largely self-educated, she was brought up on a farm in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and in 194...

Stuart, Gilbert

(Encyclopedia)Stuart, Gilbert, 1755–1828, American portrait painter, b. North Kingstown, R.I., best known for his portraits of George Washington. Having shown an early talent for drawing, he became the pupil of C...

Mount Vernon, estate, United States

(Encyclopedia)Mount Vernon, NE Va., overlooking the Potomac River near Alexandria, S of Washington, D.C.; home of George Washington from 1747 until his death in 1799. The land was patented in 1674, and the house wa...

Nantucket

(Encyclopedia)Nantucket năntŭkˈĭt [key], island, c.14 mi (23 km) long, from 3 to 6 mi (4.8–9.6 km) wide, SE Mass., lying c.25 mi (40 km) S of Cape Cod, from which it is separated by Nantucket Sound. Muskeget ...

Fagan, Garth

(Encyclopedia)Fagan, Garth, 1940–, Jamaican-American dancer and choreographer. He studied with Ivy Baxter and left Jamaica to dance with her company. Settling (1960) in Detroit, he attended Wayne State Univ. (gra...

Tirso de Molina

(Encyclopedia)Tirso de Molina gäbrēĕlˈ tĕlˈyĕth [key], 1584?–1648, outstanding dramatist of the Spanish Golden Age, b. Madrid. His fame rests on El burlador de Sevilla (1630; tr. The Love Rogue, 1924), the...

Sen, Amartya Kumar

(Encyclopedia)Sen, Amartya Kumar, 1933–, Indian economist, b. Bengal, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1959. He has taught at Jadavpur Univ., Kolkata (1956â...

Gilbreth, Frank Bunker

(Encyclopedia)Gilbreth, Frank Bunker, 1868–1924, b. Fairfield, Me., and his wife, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, 1878–1972, b. Oakland, Calif., pioneering American industrial engineers. He was a largely self-taught e...