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Wilson, James, American jurist

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, James, 1742–98, American jurist, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. near St. Andrews, Scotland. He studied at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and, after emigrating to Pe...

Biddle, Nicholas, American financier

(Encyclopedia)Biddle, Nicholas, 1786–1844, American financier, b. Philadelphia. After holding important posts in the American legations in France and England, he returned to the United States in 1807 and became o...

Central American Common Market

(Encyclopedia)Central American Common Market (CACM), trade organization envisioned by a 1960 treaty between Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The treaty established (1961) a secretariat for Central A...

Campbell, Thomas, American clergyman

(Encyclopedia)Campbell, Thomas, 1763–1854, American clergyman, a founder of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). See Campbell, Alexander, his more famous son. ...

Weber, Max, American painter

(Encyclopedia)Weber, Max wĕbˈər [key], 1881–1961, American painter, b. Russia. At 10 he accompanied his family to Brooklyn, N.Y. He studied art at Pratt Institute and in 1905 went abroad. In Paris he studied u...

Foster, Hannah Webster

(Encyclopedia)Foster, Hannah Webster, 1759–1840, American novelist, b. Boston. She was one of the earliest American novelists and her epistolary novel, The Coquette (1797), was one of the first of its kind in Ame...

Bacheller, Irving

(Encyclopedia)Bacheller, Irving băchˈələr [key], 1859–1950, American novelist, b. Pierpont, N.Y., grad. St. Lawrence Univ., 1882. In 1884 he founded the first newspaper syndicate in the United States. His nov...

Marquand, John Phillips

(Encyclopedia)Marquand, John Phillips märˈkwänd [key], 1893–1960, American novelist, b. Wilmington, Del., grad. Harvard, 1915. Most of Marquand's gently satirical novels examine life among the rich and sociall...

Desai, Anita

(Encyclopedia)Desai, Anita dĕsīˈ [key], 1937–, Indian fiction writer, b. Mussoorie as Anita Mazumdar, grad. Delhi Univ. (B.A., 1957). A prolific novelist, she often paints a subtly intelligent and darkly evoca...

Dixon, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Dixon, Thomas, 1864–1946, American novelist, b. Shelby, N.C., grad. Wake Forest College. A militant Southerner, he is best known for his novel The Clansman (1905), on which D. W. Griffith's movie Th...