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Shimazaki Toson

(Encyclopedia)Shimazaki Toson shēˈmäˈzäˈkē tōˈsōn [key], 1872–1943, Japanese poet and novelist. A pioneer in the establishment of a new Japanese verse form, Toson later turned his talents to prose ficti...

Potter, Beatrix

(Encyclopedia)Potter, Beatrix, 1866–1943, English author and illustrator. She published her first animal stories, The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) and The Tailor of Gloucester (1903), at her own expense before she...

Powers, Hiram

(Encyclopedia)Powers, Hiram, 1805–73, American sculptor, b. Woodstock, Vt. Having moved to Ohio, he made wax models for a Cincinnati museum. In 1835 he began his career as a sculptor, spending some time in Washin...

Saigyo

(Encyclopedia)Saigyo säīˈgyō [key], 1118–90, Japanese poet-priest of the late Heian, early medieval period. Born into a warrior clan, Saigyo studied with the most renowned poets of his day, producing relative...

San Luis Potosí, city, Mexico

(Encyclopedia)San Luis Potosí, city (1990 pop. 489,238), capital of San Luis Potosí state, central Mexico. Situated on a plain almost entirely surrounded by low mountains, the city is a mining and agricultural di...

Roanne

(Encyclopedia)Roanne rôänˈ [key], town (1990 pop. 42,848), Loire dept., E central France, on the Loire River. Cotton and metals are the chief products; other industries include tanning, machine and vehicle manuf...

Osborne, Dorothy

(Encyclopedia)Osborne, Dorothy ŏzˈbərn [key], later Lady Temple, 1627–95, English letter writer. The daughter of a royalist, she became engaged to Sir William Temple against the wishes of her family. Her lette...

Olympiad

(Encyclopedia)Olympiad, unit of a chronological era of ancient Greece, a four-year period, each one beginning with the Olympic games. Timaeus (c.356–c.260 b.c.) of Sicily was the first to use, as a check on chron...

soma

(Encyclopedia)soma sōˈmə [key], psychotropic plant, the juice of which was sometimes drunk as part of the Vedic sacrifice (see Veda). Many hymns in the Rig-Veda are in praise of soma. In the late Vedic period su...

Strype, John

(Encyclopedia)Strype, John strīp [key], 1643–1737, English ecclesiastical historian and biographer. A graduate of Cambridge, he took holy orders. Much of his early life was spent in collecting old charters, lett...