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Handy, W. C.

(Encyclopedia)Handy, W. C. (William Christopher Handy), 1873–1958, American songwriter and band leader, b. Florence, Ala. Largely self-taught, Handy began his career as a cornet player in a minstrel show in 1896,...

Henderson, Fletcher

(Encyclopedia)Henderson, Fletcher (James Fletcher “Smack” Henderson), 1898–1952, American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist, b. Cuthbert, Ga. Henderson played piano from childhood. Short of funds after com...

Post, C. W.

(Encyclopedia)Post, C. W. (Charles William Post), 1854–1914, American food manufacturer and developer of breakfast cereals, b. Springfield, Ill. He worked (1872–86) selling agricultural machines and invented a ...

Fields, W. C.

(Encyclopedia)Fields, W. C. (William Claude Fields), 1880–1946, American comic actor, b. Philadelphia as Claude William Dukenfield. He began his career as a juggler, and much later appeared in the Ziegfeld Follie...

body-marking

(Encyclopedia)body-marking, painting, tattooing, or scarification (cutting or burning) of the body for ritual, esthetic, medicinal, magic, or religious purposes. Evidence from prehistoric burials, rock carvings, an...

Lewis, C. S.

(Encyclopedia)Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples Lewis), 1898–1963, English author, b. Belfast, Ireland. A fellow and tutor of English at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, C. S. Lewis was noted equally for hi...

Memphis, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Memphis mĕmˈfĭs [key], city (1990 pop. 610,337), seat of Shelby co., SW Tenn., on the Fourth, or Lower, Chickasaw Bluff above the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Wolf River; inc. 1826. A river por...

Merwin, W. S.

(Encyclopedia)Merwin, W. S. (William Stanley Merwin), 1927–2019, American poet and translator, b. New York City. After graduating from Princeton in 1948, he traveled in Europe, working as a tutor and studying Rom...

Lover, Samuel

(Encyclopedia)Lover, Samuel, 1797–1868, Irish painter, novelist, and songwriter. Before turning to literature, Lover was a painter, and in 1828 he became a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Art. However, h...
 

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