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King, Charles Bird

(Encyclopedia)King, Charles Bird, 1785–1862, American portrait painter, b. Newport, R.I. He studied under Edward Savage and with Benjamin West in London. His work, executed in Washington, D.C., included Native Am...

Honthorst, Gerrit van

(Encyclopedia)Honthorst, Gerrit van gĕrˈĭt vän hōntˈhôrst [key], 1590–1656, Dutch portrait, genre, and allegorical painter. In Italy (c.1610–1620) he gained a sound understanding of the works of Caravagg...

Kenneth II

(Encyclopedia)Kenneth II, d. 995, Scottish king (971–995). The son of Malcolm I (reigned 943–54), he became king of the united Picts and Scots in 971 and immediately led a savage raid on the British in Northumb...

Buntline, Ned

(Encyclopedia)Buntline, Ned bŭntˈlĭn, –līn [key], pseud. of Edward Zane Carroll Judson, 1823–86, American adventurer and writer. In 1845 he founded in Nashville Ned Buntline's Own, a sensational magazine. A...

Laclos, Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de

(Encyclopedia)Laclos, Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de pyĕr äNbrwäzˈ fräNswäˈ shôdĕrlōˈ də läklōˈ [key], 1741–1803, French novelist and general, known as Choderlos de Laclos. He is best known...

centaur

(Encyclopedia)centaur sĕnˈtôr [key], in Greek mythology, creature, half man and half horse. The centaurs were fathered by Ixion or by Centaurus, who was Ixion's son. Followers of Dionysus, they were uncouth and ...

Shays's Rebellion

(Encyclopedia)Shays's Rebellion, 1786–87, armed insurrection by farmers in W Massachusetts against the state government. Debt-ridden farmers, struck by the economic depression that followed the American Revolutio...

epigram

(Encyclopedia)epigram, a short, polished, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a satiric or paradoxical twist at the end. The term was originally applied by the Greeks to the inscriptions on stones. The epigr...

Elgin, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Elgin ĕlˈjĭn [key]. <1> City (2020 pop. 114,797), Cook and Kane counties, NE Ill., o...

Monk, Meredith Jane

(Encyclopedia)Monk, Meredith Jane, 1942–, American dancer, choreographer, composer, singer, director, and filmmaker, b. Lima, Peru, grad. Sarah Lawrence College, 1964. A major figure in the avant-garde, she began...

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