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Heinlein, Robert Anson MacDonald

(Encyclopedia)Heinlein, Robert Anson MacDonald hīˈlīn [key], 1907–88, American science-fiction writer, b. Butler, Mo. His best-known novel, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), concerns a young man who is raised...

Declaration of Independence

(Encyclopedia)Declaration of Independence, full and formal declaration adopted July 4, 1776, by representatives of the Thirteen Colonies in North America announcing the separation of those colonies from Great Brita...

Fredericksburg, battle of

(Encyclopedia)Fredericksburg, battle of, in the Civil War, fought Dec. 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, Va. In Nov., 1862, the Union general Ambrose Burnside moved his three “grand divisions” under W. B. Franklin, ...

Harlem

(Encyclopedia)Harlem, residential and business section of upper Manhattan, New York City, bounded roughly by 110th St., the East River and Harlem River, 168th St., Amsterdam Ave., and Morningside Park. The Dutch se...

Taylor, Myron Charles

(Encyclopedia)Taylor, Myron Charles, 1874–1959, American industrialist and diplomat, b. Lyons, N.Y. He practiced law and then ran a group of textile mills in New England. In 1932 he succeeded J. P. Morgan, Jr., a...

Norris, Frank

(Encyclopedia)Norris, Frank (Benjamin Franklin Norris), 1870–1902, American novelist, b. Chicago. After studying in Paris, at the Univ. of California (1890–94), and at Harvard, he spent several years as a war c...

Stegner, Wallace

(Encyclopedia)Stegner, Wallace (Wallace Earle Stegner), 1909–93, American writer, b. Lake Mills, Iowa, grad. Univ. of Utah (1930). He wrote perceptively of the American West in short stories, e.g., The Woman on t...

Atherton, Gertrude Franklin (Horn)

(Encyclopedia)Atherton, Gertrude Franklin (Horn) ăthˈərtən [key], 1857–1948, American writer, b. San Francisco. She wrote a series of historical novels about California, which include The Californians (1898),...

Franklin and Marshall College

(Encyclopedia)Franklin and Marshall College, at Lancaster, Pa.; United Church of Christ (Evangelical-Reformed); coeducational; est. 1787 as Franklin College, reorganized 1853 when it merged with Marshall College (c...

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