VAN DYKE, Carl Chester, a Representative from Minnesota; born in Alexandria, Douglas County, Minn., February 18, 1881; attended the common and high schools of Alexandria; taught school in…
(Encyclopedia) Griffith, D. W. (David Llewelyn Wark Griffith), 1875–1948, American movie director and producer, b. La Grange, Ky. Griffith was the first major American film director. He began his…
(Encyclopedia) Quine, W. V. (Willard Van Orman Quine)Quine, W. V.kwīn [key], 1908–2000, American philosopher and mathematical logician, b. Akron, Ohio, grad. Oberlin, 1930. He studied at Harvard (Ph.…
(Encyclopedia) Sebald, W. G. (Winfried Georg Maximilian Sebald), 1944–2001, German novelist, grad. Freiburg Univ. (1965). Sebald's novels are dense, elegiac, and meditative. They mingle fiction with…
(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…
(Encyclopedia) Murnau, Friedrich W.Murnau, Friedrich W.frēˈdrĭkh m&oobreve;rˈnou [key], 1889–1931, German film director, b. as Friedrich W. Plumpe. He began directing films in Germany in 1919 and…
(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…
(Encyclopedia) Mohammed, W. Deen (Warith Deen Mohammed), 1933–2008, American Muslim leader, b. Detroit as Wallace Dean Muhammad. The son of Nation of Islam (Black Muslim) leader Elijah Muhammad, he…
(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…