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Varenius, Bernhardus

(Encyclopedia)Varenius, Bernhardus bĕrnˈhärt fäˈrən [key], 1622–50, Dutch geographer. He studied to be a physician, but instead focused on geography. His first work was a geography and history of Japan, Des...

Egyptian language

(Encyclopedia)Egyptian language, extinct language of ancient Egypt, a member of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The development of ancient Egyptian is usually divided into four peri...

Pygmy

(Encyclopedia)Pygmy or Pigmy both: pĭgˈmē [key], term used for dark-skinned people who live in equatorial rain forests and average less than 59 in. (150 cm) in height. Some studies make a distinction between Neg...

Middleton, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Middleton, Thomas, 1580–1627, English dramatist, b. London, grad. Queen's College, Oxford, 1598. His early plays were chiefly written in collaboration with Dekker, Drayton, and others. Between 1604 ...

N. Scott Momaday

(Encyclopedia)N. Scott Momaday (Navarre Scott Momaday), 1934–2024, American writer whose works are reflective of his Kiowa culture, b. Lawton, Okla., B.A. Univ. of ...

Lilburne, John

(Encyclopedia)Lilburne, John, 1614?–1657, English political leader and pamphleteer of the Levelers. He was tried before the court of the Star Chamber as early as 1638 for printing and distributing antiepiscopal w...

Kristeva, Julia

(Encyclopedia)Kristeva, Julia, 1941–, French critic, psychoanalyst, semiotician, and writer, b. Sliven, Bulgaria. Writing in French, she has explored many subjects including structuralist linguistics and semiotic...

Hennepin, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Hennepin, Louis hĕnˈəpĭn [key], 1640–1701?, French cleric and explorer in North America. A Franciscan Recollect friar, Hennepin came to Canada in 1675, meeting on the journey La Salle, who made ...

Graves, Robert Ranke

(Encyclopedia)Graves, Robert Ranke, 1895–1985, English poet, novelist, and critic; son of Alfred Percival Graves. He established his reputation with Good-bye to All That (1929), an outspoken book on his war exper...

German East Africa

(Encyclopedia)German East Africa, former German colony, c.370,000 sq mi (958,300 sq km), E Africa. Dar es Salaam was the capital. German influence emerged in the area in 1884 when Carl Peters, the German explorer, ...