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More, Sir Thomas

(Encyclopedia)More, Sir Thomas (Saint Thomas More), 1478–1535, English statesman and author of Utopia, celebrated as a martyr in the Roman Catholic Church. He received a Latin education in the household of Cardin...

Williams, Tennessee

(Encyclopedia)Williams, Tennessee (Thomas Lanier Williams), 1911–83, American dramatist, b. Columbus, Miss., grad. State Univ. of Iowa, 1938. One of America's foremost 20th-century playwrights and the author of m...

Smith, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Smith, Joseph, 1805–44, American Mormon leader, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, b. Sharon, Vt. When he was a boy his family moved to Palmyra, N.Y., where he experienc...

Jerome, Jerome Klapka

(Encyclopedia)Jerome, Jerome Klapka, 1859–1927, English humorist and playwright. His Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886) and Three Men in a Boat (1889) gave him his reputation for genial humor. Of his dramatic...

Lawes, Lewis Edward

(Encyclopedia)Lawes, Lewis Edward, 1883–1947, American penologist, b. Elmira, N.Y. As warden (1920–41) of Sing Sing Prison, a New York state prison located at Ossining, N.Y., he carried out many reforms, advoca...

country music

(Encyclopedia)country music, American popular music form originating in the Southern and Western United States. Country music is directly descended from the folk songs, ballads, and popular songs of the English, Sc...

Cheever, John

(Encyclopedia)Cheever, John, 1912–82, American author, b. Quincy, Mass. His expulsion from Thayer Academy was the subject of his first short story, published by the New Republic when he was 17. Many of his subseq...

Eugénie

(Encyclopedia)Eugénie yo͞ojēˈnē, Fr. özhānēˈ [key], 1826–1920, empress of the French (1853–70), consort of Napoleon III. Born in Spain, she was christened Eugenia María de Montijo de Guzmán and was t...

Harris, Joel Chandler

(Encyclopedia)Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848–1908, American short-story writer and humorist, b. Eatonton, Ga., considered one of the great American regionalist writers. As an apprentice to the editor of the Countrym...

Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson

(Encyclopedia)Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson hôlˈdān, –dən [key], 1892–1964, British geneticist, biologist, and popularizer of science; son of John Scott Haldane. He studied at Oxford until his studies were...