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Swift, Jonathan

(Encyclopedia)Swift, Jonathan, 1667–1745, English author, b. Dublin. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest satirists in the English language. In 1713 Swift became dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dubl...

Clinton, George, vice president of the United States

(Encyclopedia)Clinton, George, 1739–1812, American statesman, vice president of the United States (1805–1812), b. Little Britain, N.Y. Before he was 20 he served on a privateer and, in the French and Indian War...

Van Buren, Martin

(Encyclopedia)Van Buren, Martin, 1782–1862, 8th President of the United States (1837–41), b. Kinderhook, Columbia co., N.Y. He was again the presidential candidate of the Democratic party in 1840, but he was ...

Clinton, George, colonial governor of New York

(Encyclopedia)Clinton, George, c.1686–1761, colonial governor of New York (1743–53), b. England; father of Sir Henry Clinton. He entered (1708) the British navy and rose to the rank of admiral in 1747. Through ...

Dryden, John

(Encyclopedia)Dryden, John, 1631–1700, English poet, dramatist, and critic, b. Northamptonshire, grad. Cambridge, 1654. He went to London about 1657 and first came to public notice with his Heroic Stanzas (1659),...

Clinton, De Witt

(Encyclopedia)Clinton, De Witt də wĭtˈ [key], 1769–1828, American statesman, b. New Windsor, N.Y.; son of James Clinton. He was admitted (1790) to the New York bar but soon became secretary to his uncle, Georg...

Hughes, Langston

(Encyclopedia)Hughes, Langston (James Langston Hughes), 1902–67, American poet and central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, b. Joplin, Mo., grad. Lincoln Univ., 1929. He worked at a variety of jobs and lived in ...

Whitewater, in U.S. history

(Encyclopedia)Whitewater, popular name for a failed 1970s Arkansas real estate venture by the Whitewater Development Corp., in which Gov. (later President) Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were pa...

reading, mental process

(Encyclopedia)reading, process of mentally interpreting written symbols. Facility in reading is an essential factor in educational progress, and instruction in this basic skill is a primary purpose of elementary ed...

Spitteler, Carl Friedrich Georg

(Encyclopedia)Spitteler, Carl Friedrich Georg kärl frēˈdrĭkh gāˈôrkh shpĭtˈələr [key], 1845–1924, Swiss poet, whose pseudonym was Carl Felix Tandem. He was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize in Literature. H...
 

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