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Oliver, Mary

(Encyclopedia)Oliver, Mary, 1935–2019, American poet, b. Cleveland, Ohio, studied Ohio State Univ., Vassar. She published her first collection of poems, No Voyage and Other Poems, in 1963. She was a keen observer...

Oz, Amos

(Encyclopedia)Oz, Amos, 1939–2018, Israeli writer, b. Jerusalem as Amos Klausner. As a teenager he changed his name to Oz [Heb.,=strength]. A former kibbutz member, Israeli soldier, and schoolteacher, he became o...

Hou Hsiao-hsien

(Encyclopedia)Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1947–, Taiwanese film director, b. Guangdong, China. His first feature film, Cute Girl (1980), and subsequent ones were generally saccharine romances until the semibiographical A Ti...

Hoyle, Sir Fred

(Encyclopedia)Hoyle, Sir Fred hoil [key], 1915–2001, British astrophysicist and mathematician, b. Bingley, Yorkshire. During the years of World War II, Hoyle primarily worked on technical problems related to rada...

Kelly, Gene

(Encyclopedia)Kelly, Gene, 1912–96, American dancer, choreographer, movie actor, and director, b. Pittsburgh as Eugene Curran Kelly. Kelly started dancing on Broadway in 1938 and first gained fame in the title ro...

speedometer

(Encyclopedia)speedometer, instrument that indicates speed. A cable from an automotive speedometer is attached to the rear of the transmission of an automobile; the cable turns at a rate proportional to the speed o...

Canyonlands National Park

(Encyclopedia)Canyonlands National Park, 337,598 acres (136,679 hectares), SE Utah; est. 1964. Located in a desert region, the park contains a maze of deep canyons and many unusual features carved by wind and water...

pollen

(Encyclopedia)pollen, minute grains, usually yellow in color but occasionally white, brown, red, or purple, borne in the anther sac at the tip of the slender filament of the stamen of a flowering plant or in the ma...

atmosphere

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Atmosphere atmosphere [Gr.,=sphere of air], the mixture of gases surrounding a celestial body with sufficient gravity to maintain it. Although some details about the atmospheres of other plane...

Lowell, Amy

(Encyclopedia)Lowell, Amy, 1874–1925, American poet, biographer, and critic, b. Brookline, Mass., privately educated; sister of Percival Lowell and Abbott Lawrence Lowell. In 1912 she published A Dome of Many-Col...