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Montcalm, Louis Joseph de

(Encyclopedia)Montcalm, Louis Joseph de mŏntkämˈ, Fr. lwē zhôzĕfˈ də môNkälmˈ [key], 1712–59, French general. His name in fuller form was Louis Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, marquis de Saint-Véran. A vete...

Astoria

(Encyclopedia)Astoria ăstôrˈēə [key]. 1 Commercial, industrial, and residential section of NW Queens borough of New York City, SE N.Y.; settled in the 17th cent. as Hallet's Cove. It was renamed for John Jacob...

Assassin

(Encyclopedia)Assassin əsăsˈĭn [key], European name for the member of a secret order of the Ismaili sect of Islam. They are known as Nizaris after Nizar ibn al-Mustansir, whom they supported as caliph; the Euro...

Walpole, Horace, 4th earl of Orford

(Encyclopedia)Walpole, Horace or Horatio, 4th earl of Orford, 1717–97, English author; youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he toured the Continent with his friend Thomas Gray from ...

Snow, C. P.

(Encyclopedia)Snow, C. P. (Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of Leicester), 1905–80, English author and physicist. Snow had an active, varied career, including several important positions in the British government. ...

Spender, Sir Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Spender, Sir Stephen, 1909–95, English poet and critic, b. London. His early poetry—like that of W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis, and Louis MacNeice, with whom he became associated at Oxford—was inspi...

Actors Studio, The

(Encyclopedia)Actors Studio, The, organization founded 1947 in New York City by the directors Cheryl Crawford, Elia Kazan, and Robert Lewis to train professional actors. Long directed (1948–82) by Lee Strasberg a...

Osage, indigenous people of North America

(Encyclopedia)Osage ōˈsāj, ōsājˈ [key], indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In prehistoric time...

heredity

(Encyclopedia)heredity, transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents. That like begets like has...

Stoppard, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Stoppard, Tom, 1937–, English playwright, b. Zlín, Czechoslovakia (now in the Czech Republic), as Tomas Straussler. During his childhood he and his family moved to Singapore, later (1946) settling ...