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Drabble, Margaret

(Encyclopedia)Drabble, Margaret, 1939–, English novelist, b. Sheffield, Yorkshire; sister of A. S. Byatt. Drabble's rigorous and unsentimentally realistic vision of an England split between traditional values and...

Johnson, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Johnson, Robert, 1911–38, African-American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, b. Hazelhurst, Miss. A sharecropper's son, he grew up absorbing the music of Delta bluesmen, learning the harmonic...

Rizal, José

(Encyclopedia)Rizal, José hōsāˈ rēsälˈ [key], 1861–96, Philippine nationalist, author, poet, and physician, b. Calamba, Laguna prov. He studied at a Jesuit school in Manila, at the Univ. of Madrid (M.D., 1...

Scopes trial

(Encyclopedia)Scopes trial, Tennessee legal case involving the teaching of evolution in public schools. A statute was passed (Mar., 1925) in Tennessee that prohibited the teaching in public schools of theories cont...

rationalism

(Encyclopedia)rationalism [Lat.,=belonging to reason], in philosophy, a theory that holds that reason alone, unaided by experience, can arrive at basic truth regarding the world. Associated with rationalism is the ...

Norris, George William

(Encyclopedia)Norris, George William, 1861–1944, American legislator, b. Sandusky co., Ohio. After admission to the bar in 1883, he moved (1885) to Furnas co., Nebr., where he practiced law and was prosecuting at...

Ondaatje, Michael

(Encyclopedia)Ondaatje, Michael (Philip Michael Ondaatje) ändätˈchā [key], 1943–, Canadian writer, b. Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Immigrating (1962) to Canada, he attended the Univ. of Toronto (B.A., 19...

Basil the Great, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Basil the Great, Saint băˈzĭl, bāˈ– [key], c.330–379, Greek prelate, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Doctor of the Church and one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church. He was a brother o...

Ellison, Ralph

(Encyclopedia)Ellison, Ralph (Ralph Waldo Ellison), 1914–94, African-American author, b. Oklahoma City, studied Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee Univ.). Originally a trumpet player and aspiring composer, he moved...

Fermi, Enrico

(Encyclopedia)Fermi, Enrico ĕnrēˈkō fĕrˈmē [key], 1901–54, American physicist, b. Italy. He studied at Pisa, Göttingen, and Leiden, and taught physics at the universities of Florence and Rome. He contribu...
 

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