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Excalibur

(Encyclopedia)Excalibur ĕkskălˈĭbər [key], in Arthurian legend, sword given to King Arthur by the Lady of the Lake. At Arthur's death Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the lake; a hand rose from the water, cau...

Gravely, Samuel Lee, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Gravely, Samuel Lee, Jr., 1922–2004, U.S. naval officer, the first African American to hold the rank of admiral, b. Richmond, Va. Joining the Naval Reserves in 1942, he became (1944) the first Afric...

Gorzów Wielkopolski

(Encyclopedia)Gorzów Wielkopolski gôrˈzo͞of vyĕlkôpôlˈskē [key], Ger. Landsberg an der Warthe, city (1994 est. pop. 125,800), capital (with Zielona Góra) of Lubuskie prov., W Poland, on the Warthe River. ...

Friml, Rudolf

(Encyclopedia)Friml, Rudolf (Charles Rudolf Friml) frĭmˈəl [key], 1879–1972, American composer, b. Prague. Friml lived in the United States after 1906. The best-known of his 33 light operas are The Firefly (19...

Jean de Meun

(Encyclopedia)Jean de Meun zhäN də möN [key], d. 1305, French poet, also known as Jean Chopinel (or Clopinel) of Meung-sur-Loire. He wrote the second part of the Roman de la Rose and made translations from Latin...

Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of

(Encyclopedia)Kildare, Thomas Fitzgerald, 10th earl of, 1513–37, Irish nobleman, called Silken Thomas. When his father, the 9th earl and lord deputy of Ireland, was summoned to London on charges of maladministrat...

White, Stewart Edward

(Encyclopedia)White, Stewart Edward, 1873–1946, American author, b. Grand Rapids, Mich., grad. Univ. of Michigan, 1895. The stories collected in The Claim Jumpers (1901) and The Blazed Trail (1902) reflect his ow...

Waller, Fats

(Encyclopedia)Waller, Fats, 1904–43, American jazz musician, singer, and composer, whose original name was Thomas Wright Waller, b. New York City. Waller began playing the piano as a child, and later studied with...

Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh

(Encyclopedia)Carlyle, Jane Baillie Welsh, 1801–66, English woman of letters; wife of Thomas Carlyle, whom she married in 1826. She possessed a genius for letter writing, manifest in the volumes of her published ...

Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias

(Encyclopedia)Bandaranaike, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias, 1899–1959, prime minister (1956–59) of Ceylon (later Sri Lanka); husband of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. A lawyer educated in England, he entered politics and r...