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Wessex

(Encyclopedia)Wessex wĕsˈĭks [key], one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in England. It may have been settled as early as 495 by Saxons under Cerdic, who is reputed to have landed in Hampshire. Cerdic's grandson, Cea...

Merton, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Merton, Thomas, 1915–68, American religious writer and poet, b. France. He grew up in France, England, and the United States and studied at Cambridge and at Columbia (B.A., 1938; M.A., 1939). Conver...

Lille

(Encyclopedia)Lille lēl [key], city (1990 pop. 178,301), capital of Nord dept., N France, near the Belgian border. With its central position in NW Europe, Lille became a great commercial, cultural, and manufacturi...

Armstrong, Louis

(Encyclopedia)Armstrong, Louis (Daniel Louis Armstrong), known as “Satchmo” and “Pops,” 1901–1971, American jazz trumpet virtuoso, singer, and bandleader, b. New Orleans. He learned to play the cornet in ...

Rumi, Jalal ad-Din

(Encyclopedia)Rumi, Jalal ad-Din jälälˈ ĕd-dēnˈ ro͞oˈmē [key], 1207–73, great Islamic Persian sage and poet mystic, b. in Balkh. His father, a scholar, was invited by the Seljuk sultan of Rum to settle i...

Baldessari, John

(Encyclopedia)Baldessari, John (John Anthony Baldessari), 1931–2020, American artist, b. National City, Calif., grad. San Diego State College (now Univ.; B.A., 1953; M.F.A., 1957). A founder of conceptual art, he...

Gombrich, E. H.

(Encyclopedia)Gombrich, E. H. (Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich), 1909–2001, British art historian and scholar, b. Vienna, grad. Univ. of Vienna (1933). From a culturally prominent Austrian-Jewish family, he fled German...

Swift, Taylor Alison

(Encyclopedia) Swift, Taylor Alison, 1989- , American singer-songwriter, b. West Reading, Pa. A precocious songwriter, Swift moved to Nashville at age 15 hoping ...

Casanova de Seingalt, Giovanni Giacomo

(Encyclopedia)Casanova de Seingalt, Giovanni Giacomo kăzənōˈvə, Ital. jōvänˈnē jäˈkōmō käzänōˈvä dā sāngältˈ [key], 1725–98, Venetian adventurer, author, and celebrated libertine. He studied...

Mosby, John Singleton

(Encyclopedia)Mosby, John Singleton môzˈbē [key], 1833–1916, Confederate partisan leader in the American Civil War, b. Edgemont, Va. He was practicing law in Bristol, Va., when the Civil War broke out. Mosby s...
 

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