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Steinman, Ralph Marvin

(Encyclopedia)Steinman, Ralph Marvin, 1943–2011, Canadian biologist, M.D. Harvard Medical School, 1968. He was a researcher and professor at Rockefeller Univ., New York City, from 1970 until his death in 2011. St...

Stanley, Ralph Edmond

(Encyclopedia)Stanley, Ralph Edmond, 1927–2016, American bluegrass singer and banjo player, b. Dickenson co., Va. He and his brother, Carter Glen Stanley, 1925–66, were sons of a country-singer father and banjo...

Vaughan Williams, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Vaughan Williams, Ralph, 1872–1958, English composer, considered the outstanding composer of his generation in England. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1894 and studied composition ...

Sadler, Sir Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Sadler or Sadleir, Sir Ralph both: sădˈlər [key], 1507–87, English diplomat. Through the influence of Thomas Cromwell, he secured (c.1536) the favor of Henry VIII, for whom he went on numerous mi...

Richardson, Sir Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Richardson, Sir Ralph, 1902–83, English stage and film actor. Since his first professional stage appearance in The Merchant of Venice (1921), Richardson has played a variety of classic and modern ro...

Perry, Ralph Barton

(Encyclopedia)Perry, Ralph Barton, 1876–1957, American realist philosopher, b. Poultney, Vt., grad. Princeton (B.A., 1896) and Harvard (Ph.D., 1899). He taught at Harvard from 1902, becoming professor of philosop...

transcendentalism , American literary and philosophical movement

(Encyclopedia)transcendentalism trănˌsĕndĕnˈtəlĭzəm [key] [Lat.,=overpassing], in literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860. It originated among ...

essay

(Encyclopedia)essay, relatively short literary composition in prose, in which a writer discusses a topic, usually restricted in scope, or tries to persuade the reader to accept a particular point of view. Although ...

Alcott, Bronson

(Encyclopedia)Alcott, Bronson ôlˈkət, ăl–, –kŏt [key], 1799–1888, American educational and social reformer, b. near Wolcott, Conn., as Amos Bronson Alcox. His meager formal education was supplemented by ...

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, American author and physician

(Encyclopedia)Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809–94, American author and physician, b. Cambridge, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1829; M.D., 1836); father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He began his medical career as a gen...