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Massey, Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Massey, Vincent, 1887–1967, Canadian statesman, b. Toronto; brother of actor Raymond Massey. After a brief career as a professor he served (1918–19) as a government official before joining his fam...

Mélusine

(Encyclopedia)Mélusine mĕlyo͝osēˈnä [key], in French legend, a fairy who changed into a serpent from the waist down every Saturday. She married a mortal, Count Raymond, said to be the ancestor of the house of...

Peter II, king of Aragón

(Encyclopedia)Peter II, 1174–1213, king of Aragón (1196–1213) and count of Barcelona, son and successor of Alfonso II. He had himself crowned (1204) at Rome by Pope Innocent III, whom he accepted as overlord o...

peanut

(Encyclopedia)peanut, name for a low, annual leguminous plant (Arachis hypogaea) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family) and for its edible seeds. Native to South America and cultivated there for millenia, it is s...

Villon, Jacques

(Encyclopedia)Villon, Jacques, 1875–1963, French painter, brother of Marcel Duchamp and Raymond Duchamp-Villon. Villon became an exponent of cubism in 1911 and is best known for his refinement of the cubist style...

Louis IX, king of France

(Encyclopedia)Louis IX or Saint Louis, 1214–70, king of France (1226–70), son and successor of Louis VIII. His mother, Blanche of Castile, was regent during his minority (1226–34), and her regency probably la...

DeCarava, Roy

(Encyclopedia)DeCarava, Roy, 1919–2009, American photographer, b. Harlem, New York City, as Roy Rudolph DeCarava; he studied (1944–45) under Charles White at theGeorge Washington Carver Art School. He intended ...

Deschanel, Paul Eugéne Louis

(Encyclopedia)Deschanel, Paul Eugéne Louis dāshänĕlˈ [key], 1855–1922, president of the French republic (1920); son of Émile Deschanel. A member of the chamber of deputies from 1885 and several times its p...

Bradbury, Ray

(Encyclopedia)Bradbury, Ray (Raymond Douglas Bradbury) brădˈbĕrˌē, –bərē [key], 1920–2012, American writer, b. Waukegan, Ill. A popular and prolific writer of science fiction who did much to bring the ge...

Henry of Burgundy

(Encyclopedia)Henry of Burgundy, d. 1112, count of Portugal. One of a group of French nobles called by Alfonso VI of León to assist in the fight against the Moors, he arrived in Spain c.1095. He was assigned a por...
 

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