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Chambers, William

(Encyclopedia)Chambers, William, 1800–1883, and Robert Chambers, 1802–71, Scottish authors and publishers. Their firm of W. and R. Chambers is best known for Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which William started ...

Etty, William

(Encyclopedia)Etty, William, 1787–1849, English painter. He studied with Sir Thomas Lawrence and later in Italy, where Venetian painting made a lasting impression on him. Etty is best known for his spirited figur...

Empson, William

(Encyclopedia)Empson, William, 1906–84, English critic and poet. His Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), a study of the meanings of poetry, is a classic of modern literary criticism. It was followed by Some Versions...

Falconer, William

(Encyclopedia)Falconer, William fôkˈnər [key], 1732–69, Scottish poet. The victim of a shipwreck off Greece, he described his ordeal in a long, didactic poem, The Shipwreck (1762). He also wrote (1769) a sourc...

Ellis, William

(Encyclopedia)Ellis, William, 1794–1872, English missionary, pioneer of printing in the Pacific. Sent in 1816 to Polynesia as a nonconformist missionary, he set up at Tahiti the first printing press in the South ...

Elphinstone, William

(Encyclopedia)Elphinstone, William ĕlˈfĭnstən, –stōnˌ [key], 1431–1514, Scottish prelate, founder of the Univ. of Aberdeen. He was trained in the law and was employed on many political missions before bec...

Barnes, William

(Encyclopedia)Barnes, William, 1801–86, English poet and philologist. After a career as a schoolmaster, he took holy orders in 1847. He is best known for his poems in Dorset dialect, which began to appear in loca...

Seymour, William

(Encyclopedia)Seymour, William: see Hertford, William Seymour, 1st marquess and 2d earl of. ...

Shakespeare, William

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616, English dramatist and poet, b. Stratford-upon-Avon. He is widely considered the greatest playwright who ever lived. For about 150 years after his death ...

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