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Ghose, Chinmoy

(Encyclopedia)Ghose, Chinmoy gōsh [key], 1931–, Indian mystic and poet. Orphaned at the age of 12, he went to live at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in S India, where he stayed for the next 20 years, practicing spiri...

FitzGerald, Edward

(Encyclopedia)FitzGerald, Edward, 1809–83, English man of letters. A dilettante and scholar, FitzGerald spent most of his life living in seclusion in Suffolk. His masterpiece, a translation of The Rubaiyat of Oma...

Flanagan, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Flanagan, Richard, 1961–, Australian novelist, b. Longford, Tasmania, studied Univ. of Tasmania (grad. 1982), Oxford (Rhodes scholar). Flanagan, whose novels explore the past and present of his nati...

notochord

(Encyclopedia)notochord nōˈtəkôrdˌ [key], in biology, supporting rod running most of the length of animals of the phylum Chordata and present at varying times in the life cycle. Composed of large cells packed ...

McInerney, Jay

(Encyclopedia)McInerney, Jay (John Barrett McInerney, Jr.), 1955–, American writer, b. Hartford, Conn. After graduating from Williams College (1976), he studied creative writing with Raymond Carver at Syracuse Un...

Meléndez, Luis

(Encyclopedia)Meléndez, Luis lo͞oēsˈ mālānˈdāth [key], 1716–80, Spanish painter. He assisted his father, artist Francisco Melendez, until 1737, when he began studying with Lewis-Michel Vanloo, the court p...

Ariès, Philippe

(Encyclopedia)Ariès, Philippe, 1914–84, French cultural historian, b. Paris. While at the Sorbonne, he failed a crucial exam necessary for a university career, and instead became an agronomic researcher and late...

Longhi, Pietro

(Encyclopedia)Longhi, Pietro pyāˈtrō lôngˈgē [key], 1702–85, Venetian genre painter. Longhi studied with Crespi in Bologna. He is best known for his small pictures depicting the life of upper-middle-class V...

Rives, William Cabell

(Encyclopedia)Rives, William Cabell rēvz [key], 1793–1868, American politician and diplomat, b. Nelson co. (then part of Amherst co.), Va. A lawyer, he sat in the Virginia legislature (1817–21, 1822–23), was...