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Tree, Sir Herbert Beerbohm

(Encyclopedia)Tree, Sir Herbert Beerbohm, 1853–1917, English actor-manager, whose original name was Herbert Draper Beerbohm. He was a half-brother of Max Beerbohm. His first success (1884) was as the curate in Th...

Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur Thomas kwĭlˈər-ko͞ochˌ [key], pseud. Q, 1863–1944, English author. Among the novels of his native Cornwall are Dead Man's Rock (1887) and Hetty Wesley (1903), which ar...

Garbett, Cyril Forster

(Encyclopedia)Garbett, Cyril Forster gärˈbĭt [key], 1875–1955, English prelate, archbishop of York. Educated at Oxford, he was assistant curate of Portsea (1899–1909) and then vicar there (1909–19). As bis...

Burt, Cyril Lodowic

(Encyclopedia)Burt, Cyril Lodowic lŏdˈəwĭk, lōˈdə– [key], 1883–1971, British psychologist. Educated at Oxford and Würzburg, he became a prominent figure in psychology. Burt made significant contribution...

Clarke, Arthur C.

(Encyclopedia)Clarke, Arthur C. (Sir Arthur Charles Clarke), 1917–2008, British science fiction writer. During World War II he served as a radar instructor and aviator in the Royal Air Force. After the war he obt...

Boult, Sir Adrian

(Encyclopedia)Boult, Sir Adrian bōlt [key], 1889–1983, English conductor. Boult studied conducting in Leipzig with Arthur Nikisch (1912–13). In 1930 he became conductor of the newly formed BBC Symphony Orchest...

Spender, Sir Stephen

(Encyclopedia)Spender, Sir Stephen, 1909–95, English poet and critic, b. London. His early poetry—like that of W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis, and Louis MacNeice, with whom he became associated at Oxford—was inspi...

Arthurian legend

(Encyclopedia)Arthurian legend, the mass of legend, popular in medieval lore, concerning King Arthur of Britain and his knights. Although there are innumerable variations of the Arthurian legend, the basic story...

Seward, Anna

(Encyclopedia)Seward, Anna sēˈwərd [key], 1742–1809, English poet, called the Swan of Lichfield. A member of the Lichfield literary group, which included Thomas Day and Erasmus Darwin, she was acquainted also ...

Gielgud, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Gielgud, Sir John (Arthur John Gielgud) gĭlˈgo͝od [key], 1904–2000, English actor, director, and producer. A grandnephew of Ellen Terry, Gielgud made his debut at the Old Vic in 1921. His intelli...