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Wright, Richard

(Encyclopedia)Wright, Richard, 1908–60, American author. An African American born on a Mississippi plantation, Wright struggled through a difficult childhood and worked to educate himself. He moved to Chicago in ...

Cook, James

(Encyclopedia)Cook, James, 1728–79, English explorer and navigator. The son of a Yorkshire agricultural laborer, he had little formal education. After an apprenticeship to a firm of shipowners at Whitby, he joine...

Paine, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Paine, Thomas, 1737–1809, Anglo-American political theorist and writer, b. Thetford, Norfolk, England. The son of a working-class Quaker, he became an excise officer and was dismissed from the servi...

cutting

(Encyclopedia)cutting, in horticulture, part of a plant stem, leaf, or root cut off and used for producing a new plant. It is a convenient and inexpensive method of propagation, not possible for all plants but used...

Hamlin, Hannibal

(Encyclopedia)Hamlin, Hannibal, 1809–91, Vice President of the United States (1861–65), b. Paris, Maine. Admitted to the bar in 1833, he practiced at Hampden, Maine. He was a Maine legislator (1836–40, 1847),...

Rubinstein, Anton Grigoryevich

(Encyclopedia)Rubinstein, Anton Grigoryevich əntônˈ grîgôrˈyəvĭch ro͞oˈbĭnstīn [key], 1829–94, Russian pianist, composer, and educator. As a piano virtuoso he was celebrated for his perfect technique ...

Récamier, Juliette

(Encyclopedia)Récamier, Juliette zhülyĕtˈ rākämyāˈ [key], 1777–1849, celebrated French beauty and social figure, née Jeanne Françoise Julie Adelaïde Bernard. At 15 she married Jacques Récamier, a weal...

obscenity

(Encyclopedia)obscenity, in law, anything that tends to corrupt public morals by its indecency. The moral concepts that the term connotes vary from time to time and from place to place. In the United States, the wo...

Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in

(Encyclopedia)Ts'ao Hsüeh-ch'in tsouˈ shyĕˈchĭnˈ [key], 1715–63, Chinese novelist. He is the author of Story of the Stone (or A Dream of Red Mansions), which is considered China's greatest novel. After his ...
 

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