Definitions

Louis

Louis

[loo-ee; Fr. lwee]
Auchincloss, Louis, 1917-2010, American novelist and man of letters, b. New York City; grad. Yale (1939), Univ. of Virginia Law School (1941). For many years, he was a practicing lawyer in his native city. His business experience and social background are reflected in his polished novels of manners, which mainly relate the concerns of well-to-do and well-connected white Protestants. His novels include Venus in Sparta (1958), The Rector of Justin (1964), The Embezzler (1966), The Partners (1974), The Dark Lady (1977), Watchfires (1982), and East End Story (2004). He also wrote Reflections of a Jacobite (1961), on Henry James; Edith Wharton: A Biography (1971); Richelieu (1972); and Woodrow Wilson (2000). A prolific writer with more than 60 titles to his credit, Auchincloss published False Gods, Fellow Passengers, and Love without Wings in 1991 alone. He is also known for his short stories; The Collected Stories of Louis Auchincloss was published in 1994.

See his memoir, A Writer's Capital (1974); biography by C. W. Gelderman (1993, rev. ed. 2007); studies by C. C. Dahl (1986), D. B. Parsell (1988), and V. Piket (1991).

Le Vau, Louis, 1612-70, French architect, involved in most of the important building projects for Louis XIV. He settled on the Île Saint-Louis, where he built his own house and the Hôtels Lambert and Lauzun. In 1655, Le Vau succeeded Jacques Lemercier as architect for the Louvre, on which he collaborated with Claude Perrault. He designed the palace of Versailles, where he worked with Lebrun, creating a nucleus later completed by J. H. Mansart. Among his other designs are the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte; the Collège des Quatre Nations, Paris, now the Institut de France; and the Church of St. Sulpice, Paris, the facade of which was later built by Servandoni.
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 the band of the Waif's Home in New Orleans, and after playing with Kid Ory's orchestra he made several trips (1918-21) with a Mississippi riverboat band. He joined (1922) King Oliver's group in Chicago, where he met and married the pianist Lilian Hardin. His early playing was noted for improvisation, and his reputation as trumpeter and as vocalist was quickly established. A famous innovator, Armstrong was a major influence on the melodic development of jazz in the 1920s; because of him solo performance attained a position of great importance in jazz. He organized several large bands, worked with most of the masters of jazz (and with many of those in other musical forms), and beginning in 1932 made numerous foreign tours. Armstrong appeared in Broadway shows, at countless jazz festivals, and in several American and foreign films. His archives are housed at Queens College, which also maintains his Queens, N.Y., home as a museum.

See his memoir, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans (1954, repr. 1986); his selected writings ed. by T. Brothers (1999); biographies by G. Giddens (1988), L. Bergreen (1997), and T. Teachout (2009); study by J. L. Collier (2 vol., 1983-86); J. Berrett, Louis Armstrong Companion (1999).

Botha, Louis, 1862-1919, South African soldier and statesman. A Boer (Afrikaner), he participated in the founding (1884) of the New Republic, which joined (1888) the Transvaal. Although Botha had little previous military experience, he brilliantly commanded Boer troops in the South African War. He besieged the British at Ladysmith and defeated their forces at Colenso. In 1900 he succeeded General Joubert as commander of the Transvaal army and led its remnants in guerrilla fighting. After the war (1902) he favored cooperation with the British. Botha was (1907-10) premier of the Transvaal. As the leader of the United South African, or Unionist, party he was prime minister of the Union of South Africa from its organization (1910) until his death, and he was ably assisted by Jan Christiaan Smuts. In World War I, Botha declared South Africa a belligerent on the side of the Allies. He suppressed a Boer revolt and in 1915 led the forces that conquered the German colony of South West Africa.

See biography by E. Buxton (1924); B. Williams, Botha, Smuts, and South Africa (1946); N. G. Garson, Louis Botha or John X. Merriman (1969).

Elzevir, Louis, 1540-1617, Dutch printer and bookseller, whose name also appeared as Elsevier or Elzevier. He produced his first book at Leiden in 1583. Under his descendants, the business was continued until 1791. In its best years it was easily the greatest publishing business in the world. The Elzevirs were typically neither printers nor scholars but businessmen. They owned presses and type and employed good editors and printers. Their books were legible and inexpensive. Many of the Elzevir books were printed by family members in their establishments at Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague, but many books were printed for the Elzevirs by other printers. Family owned and operated agencies were established in numerous cities, from Denmark to Italy. The Elzevir types are typically legible and sturdy, rather than elegant, and the books tended to be of small size with narrow margins. The texts were usually in Latin, though the family printed and published books in Greek, French, and other languages. Louis's son Bonaventure Elzevir, 1583-1652, and his grandson Abraham Elzevir, 1592-1652, continued and expanded the business. A famous designer of types employed by the Elzevirs was Christopher van Dyck. Roman type such as he designed, known in England and America as "old style" type, is known in Europe as "Elzevir" type.
Louis, Saint: see Louis IX, king of France.
Louis, Joe (Joseph Louis Barrow), 1914-81, American boxer, b. Lafayette, Ala. His father, a sharecropper, died when Louis was four years old, and in 1926 his stepfather took the family to Detroit, where Louis became interested in boxing. At 18 he began an amateur career in the ring. After winning (1934) the National Amateur Athletic Union light heavyweight title, Louis turned professional. In a meteoric rise, Louis—with magnificent physique, lightning punches, and stolid calmness—fought his way from the ranks of beginners to become (1937) the world heavyweight champion by knocking out James J. Braddock in the eighth round at Chicago. In 1938 he knocked out Max Schmeling—who had been the only man ever to defeat Louis (by a 12-round knockout in 1936) in professional boxing—in the first round in New York City. By the time he announced his retirement from the ring in 1949, Louis, often called the "Brown Bomber" by his admirers, had won 60 bouts, 51 by knockouts, and defended his title a record 25 times, scoring 21 knockouts. Louis came out of retirement in 1950, lost a decision to Ezzard Charles, and was knocked out (1951) by Rocky Marciano, after which he retired. In 71 professional bouts Louis was defeated only three times.

See his autobiographies (1947, 1978); biographies by C. Mead (1985) and R. Bak (1996); L. A. Erenberg, The Greatest Fight of Our Generation: Louis vs. Schmeling (2005); D. Margolick, Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink (2005).

Louis, Morris, 1912-62, American painter, b. Baltimore. A practitioner of color-field painting, Louis was noted for soaking poured paint through unsized and often unstretched canvas. Prior to 1960 he did a series of veil and floral paintings using overlapping areas of muted, transparent colors in organic patterns. After 1960, Louis worked with more precisely defined poured columns of color in a vertical or diagonal format, e.g., Lambda (1960-61; Emmerich Gall., New York City).

See study by M. Fried (1971).

Louis, Séraphine, 1894-1934, French neoprimitive painter. Louis was a shepherdess and kitchen helper who taught herself to paint. Her powerful floral paintings are fantasies of twining stems and colorful blooms, with bits of human anatomy scattered into flat, frontal designs.
Gruenberg, Louis, 1884-1964, American composer, b. Russia; pupil of Busoni. After concert tours as a pianist in Europe and America, he settled in the United States as a composer in 1919. A champion of modern music, he helped found (1923) the League of Composers and was one of the first American composers to incorporate jazz rhythms into works of major dimensions, such as Daniel Jazz (1924) and Jazz Suite (1925). His opera The Emperor Jones, based on O'Neill's play, was presented at the Metropolitan Opera in 1933. From 1940 he composed music for motion pictures.
L'Amour, Louis), 1908-88, American writer of western fiction, b. Jamestown, N.Dak., as Louis Dearborn LaMoore. He began writing in the 1940s, contributing stories to magazines under the name Tex Burns. After the success of his novel Hondo (1953), his works appeared under his own byline. L'Amour's fluidly written novels and stories are usually set in the hardscrabble world of the 19th-century American West. They feature vivid heroes and villains enmeshed in lively plots and espouse such frontier values as hard work and perserverance. One of the most popular and prolific practitioners of his or any other genre, L'Amour had, by the time of his death, published some 100 books, nearly a third of which were made into films; several previously unpublished works appeared posthumously. Among his best-known titles are The Daybreakers (1955), Taggart (1959), Bendigo Shafter (1978), and The Haunted Mesa (1987).

See his autobiography (1989); study by R. L. Gale (1985, rev. ed. 1992); R. Weinberg, The Louis L'Amour Companion (1992).

Pasteur, Louis, 1822-95, French chemist. He taught at Dijon, Strasbourg, and Lille, and in Paris at the École normale supérieure and the Sorbonne (1867-89). His early research consisted of chemical studies of the tartrates, in which he discovered (1848) molecular dissymmetry. He then began work on fermentation, which had important results. His experiments with bacteria conclusively disproved (1862) the theory of spontaneous generation and led to the germ theory of infection. His work on wine, vinegar, and beer resulted in the development of the process of pasteurization. Of great economic value also was his solution for the control of silkworm disease, his study of chicken cholera, and his technique of vaccination against anthrax, which was successfully administered against rabies in 1885. In 1888 the Pasteur Institute was founded in Paris, with Pasteur as its director, to continue work on rabies and to provide a teaching and research center on virulent and contagious diseases.

See biographies by his son-in-law, René Vallery-Radot (1920, repr. 1960); R. J. Dubos, Louis Pasteur: Free Lance of Science (1986) and Pasteur and Modern Science (rev. ed. 1988).

Simpson, Louis, 1923-, American poet, b. Jamaica, grad. Columbia (B.S., 1948; Ph.D., 1959). He began teaching at the Univ. of California at Berkeley in 1959. Using experience—frequently drawn from his childhood in Jamaica in his earlier work and later reflecting ordinary daily life—Simpson writes finely crafted poems that are often witty, rueful, and grave. His volumes of poetry include The Arrivistes: Poems 1940-48 (1949), At the End of the Open Road (1963; Pulitzer Prize), North of Jamaica (1972), Searching for the Ox (1976), The Best Hour of the Night (1983), People Live Here: Selected Poems 1949-1983 (1984), and The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001 (2003).

See study by H. Lazer, ed. (1988).

Riel, Louis, 1844-85, Canadian insurgent, leader of two rebellions, b. Manitoba, of French and métis parentage. In 1869-70 he led the rebels of the Red River settlements, mainly métis and indigenous peoples, who felt that their rights were threatened by the transfer (1869) of the Hudson's Bay Company territory to Canada. When the government dispatched (1870) troops to face the rebels, the Red River Rebellion collapsed, and Riel fled the country. In that year, under the Manitoba Act, the Red River settlements were accorded a provincial government. Riel returned to Canada and was elected to the House of Commons, but was expelled (1874) and declared an outlaw (1875). In 1884 he returned to lead a group of indigenous people and métis who were bent on securing titles to their lands in Saskatchewan. The uprising ended with an engagement (1885) at Batoche. He was captured, tried for treason, and hanged.
Barthou, Louis, 1862-1934, French cabinet minister and man of letters. He held portfolios in numerous cabinets after 1894 and was briefly premier in July-Aug., 1913. His government was responsible for the law that increased military service from two to three years. In 1934 he became foreign minister in the cabinet of Gaston Doumergue. Barthou sought to strengthen the French position in Eastern Europe. He was welcoming King Alexander of Yugoslavia at Marseilles when a Croatian nationalist assassinated (Oct., 1934) both the king and Barthou. A man of culture and learning, Barthou was the author of several biographies, notably one of Victor Hugo (tr. 1919).

See A. Roberts, The Turning Point (1970).

Untermeyer, Louis, 1885-1977, American poet and anthologist, b. New York City. Although a first-rate poet, he is known best for his anthologies, notably Modern American Poetry (1919), Modern British Poetry (1920), This Singing World (1923), Fifty Modern American and British Poets: 1920-1970 (1973), and many others, all of which have been revised numerous times. The high quality of his own poetry and his talent as a parodist are best represented in his Selected Poems and Parodies (1935). His prose works include Lives of the Poets (1960) and several volumes of criticism.

See his autobiography, From Another World (1939), and The Letters of Robert Frost to Louis Untermeyer (1963).

Malle, Louis, 1932-95, French film director, b. Thumeries, France. Malle's motion pictures are noted for their nonjudgmental approach to often taboo material, for which he sought to cause the audience to reevaluate its attitudes. The Fire Within (1963), for example, concerns the last hours of a man approaching suicide, Murmur of the Heart (1971) with incest, and Lacombe, Lucien (1974) with the French resistance and collaboration during World War II. Frequently centering on social outsiders, his diverse, innovative, and deeply personal films explore human relationships in a manner that is at once clear-eyed and romantic. Malle began making feature films in France during the 1950s, creating some of his most memorable works during the 1960s and 70s, e.g., The Thief of Paris (1966), Murmur of the Heart, and Lacombe, Lucien. For several years he worked in the United States, where his English-language films included the controversial Pretty Baby (1978), the elegiac Atlantic City (1980), and the hilarious My Dinner with André (1981). Malle returned to France in 1986, where he directed such films as Au Revoir les Enfants (1987) and Damage (1992). He also made several memorable documentaries.
Joliet, Louis: see Jolliet, Louis.
Jolliet or Joliet, Louis, 1645-1700, French explorer, joint discoverer with Jacques Marquette of the upper Mississippi River, b. Quebec prov., Canada. After a year's study of hydrography in France and some years as a trader and trapper on the Great Lakes, Jolliet was appointed (1672) as leader of an expedition in search of the Mississippi. He and Father Marquette, with five voyageurs, set out from St. Ignace in May, 1673, went to Green Bay, ascended the Fox River, portaged (at the site of Portage, Wis.) to the Wisconsin River, and descended to the Mississippi. The group followed the west bank south until they passed the mouth of the Arkansas River; then, having convinced themselves that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico, they ascended its eastern bank. They came to the Illinois River, ascended it, and, on the site of modern Chicago, portaged to the Chicago River, and again reached Lake Michigan. Marquette remained in the West while Jolliet went east to make his report, but in the Lachine Rapids, near Montreal, Jolliet's canoe overturned and his records were lost. His brief narrative, written from memory, is in essential agreement with Marquette's, the chief source account of the journey. Jolliet was rewarded with the gift of Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which was, however, seized by the British while Jolliet was absent on explorations in Labrador and around Hudson Bay. In 1697 he was made royal professor of hydrography and given a small seigniory near Quebec.

See biographies by J. Delanglez (1948) and V. L. S. Eifert (1961); M. S. Scanlon, Trails of the French Explorers (1956).

Jouvet, Louis, 1887-1951, French actor, producer, and director. A member of Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux Colombier after 1913, he left in 1922 to organize his own theater. He was director of the Comédie des Champs Élysées (1924-34) and from 1934 of the Athénée in Paris. He was the first to produce and act in many of the plays of Giraudoux. Jouvet's simple though powerful stage decors and lighting effects were extremely influential.
Farrakhan, Louis, 1933-, African-American religious leader, b. New York City, as Louis Eugene Walcott. A former calypso singer known as "The Charmer," he joined the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims) in 1955, eventually becoming minister of the Harlem Temple after Malcolm X broke with the religious group. After Elijah Muhammad died and his son steered the Black Muslims toward Sunni Islamic practice, Farrakhan founded (1977) a reorganized Nation of Islam that adhered to the elder Muhammad's teachings. Often denounced as anti-Semitic and antiwhite, Farrakhan has stridently criticized white Americans while emphasizing African-American self-improvement. In 1995 he was one of the chief organizers of the Million Man March, a day of renewal for African-American men in Washington, D.C. In 2000, Farrakhan publicly reconciled with W. Deen Mohammed, Elijah's son. In 2006, Farrakhan, suffering from illness, gave the day-to-day responsibilities for running the Nation of Islam to its executive board.
Aragon, Louis, 1897-1982, French writer. One of the founders of surrealism in literature, Aragon abandoned that philosophy for Marxism after a trip to the USSR in 1931. He was a leader of the Resistance during World War II, and he edited the radical Paris daily Ce Soir and later the Communist weekly Les Lettres françaises. Aragon's early works include the volume of poems Feu de joie (1920) and the surrealistic novel Le Paysan de Paris (1926, tr. Nightwalker, 1970). His cycle of social novels concerning political responsibility are translated as The Bells of Basel (1934, tr. 1941), Residential Quarter (1936, tr. 1938), The Century Was Young (1941, tr. 1941), and Aurelien (1945, tr. 1947). Les Communistes, the first of his five-volume cycle of realistic novels, appeared in 1949. His later works include a novel about the artist Jean Louis Géricault, Holy Week (1958, tr. 1961); a history of the USSR from 1917 to 1960, Histoire parallèle (1962, tr. 1964); the novel La Mise à mort (1965); and a two-volume memoir of Matisse (1972). His major works of poetry include Le Crève-coeur (1941), war poems; the series of love poems to his wife, the novelist Triolet: Les Yeux d'Elsa (1954), Elsa (1959), and Le Fou d'Elsa (1963); and Les Chambres (1969).

See Louis Aragon, Poet of the French Resistance (ed. by H. Josephson and M. Cowley, 1945); study by L. F. Becker (1971).

Hébert, Louis, 1575-1627, French pioneer, known as the first Canadian farmer. A Paris apothecary, he spent 10 years (1604-14) in Acadia, and at Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, N.S.) he made some attempts to farm. Soon after his return to France, Hébert, at the urging of his friend Samuel de Champlain, again set forth for Canada. With his family he settled at Quebec in 1617, the first permanent settler and farmer in Canada. In 1623 he received a grant of land on the site of what is now Upper Town, Quebec.
Renault, Louis, 1843-1918, French jurist, professor of international law at the Univ. of Paris. Renault was one of the founders of the scientific study of international law in France. He sat on the Hague Tribunal (the Permanent Court of Arbitration) and did much to advance the cause of international arbitration. He shared with E. T. Moneta the 1907 Nobel Peace Prize.
McLane, Louis, 1786-1857, American statesman, b. Smyrna, Del. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1817-27) and in the Senate (1827-29), resigning to become minister to England (1829-31). He was Secretary of the Treasury (1831-33) in Andrew Jackson's cabinet, but when he refused Jackson's demand to transfer deposits from the Bank of the United States to state banks, he was made Secretary of State (1833-34). President of the Baltimore and Ohio RR (1837-47), he was again (1845-46) minister to England, where he conducted the negotiations to establish the Oregon boundary.
MacNeice, Louis, 1907-63, Irish poet. Educated in England, he became a classical scholar and teacher and later was a producer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. In the 1930s MacNeice allied himself with a group of poets of social protest led by W. H. Auden. His later poetry, expressing the futility of modern life, retains the sparkling wit, ironical flatness of statement, and colloquial tone of his earlier verse. His volumes of poetry include Poems, 1925-1940 (1940), Springboard (1945), Holes in the Sky (1948), Ten Burnt Offerings (1952), and Solstices (1961). He also rendered poetic translations of Aeschylus' Agamemnon (1936) and Goethe's Faust (1951).

See his Strings Are False: An Unfinished Autobiography (1966); Collected Poems, ed. by E. R. Dodds (1967); studies by W. T. McKinnon (1971) and D. B. Moore (1972).

Blanc, Louis, 1811-82, French socialist politician and journalist and historian. In his noted Organisation du travail (1840, tr. Organization of Work, 1911), he outlined his ideal of a new social order based on the principle "Let each produce according to his aptitudes … let each consume according to his need." He advocated, as a first stage in the achievement of this goal, a system of national workshops (ateliers sociaux) controlled by workingmen with the support of the state. He attacked the Louis Philippe government in Histoire de dix ans (5 vol., 1841-44, tr. The History of Ten Years, 1830-1840, 1844-45). As a member of the provisional government of 1848 he insisted on the establishment of the social workshops, but the plan was sabotaged by other leaders of the government. Implicated in the subsequent insurrection of the workers, Blanc fled to England, where he remained until 1871. While in exile he wrote the 13-volume Histoire de la Révolution française (1847-62), in which his admiration of Jacobinism was manifest. After his return to France, he became (1871) a member of the national assembly and was later a leader of the left in the chamber of deputies. Blanc's ideas, which Marx labeled "utopian socialism," influenced the thought of later political thinkers, especially Ferdinand Lassalle and the German socialists.

See biography by L. A. Loubère (1961); D. C. McKay, The National Workshops (1933); C. Landaur, European Socialism (1959).

Blériot, Louis, 1872-1936, French aviator and inventor. He devoted the fortune acquired by his invention of an automobile searchlight to the invention and construction of monoplanes. After making several short-distance records, he was the first to cross (July 25, 1909) the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine.
Braille, Louis, 1809?-1852, French inventor of the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind. Having become blind from an accident at the age of 3, he was admitted at 10 to the Institution nationale des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris. Later he taught there. In order to make his instruction easier, he chose Charles Barbier's system of writing with points, evolving a much simpler one from that system. He was interested in music as well and for a time played the organ in a church in Paris. The Braille system consists of six raised points or dots used in 63 possible combinations. It is in use, in modified form, for printing, writing, and musical notation for the blind. See also blindness.
Orléans, Louis, duc d', 1372-1407, brother of King Charles VI of France, whose chief counselor he was from 1388 to 1392. After 1392, when Charles VI suffered his first attack of insanity, Louis became involved in a long struggle for control with his uncle, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and with Philip's successor, John the Fearless. Unpopular because of his extravagance, he was treacherously murdered by John's order in 1407. His death precipitated the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians.
Hémon, Louis, 1880-1913, French Canadian novelist, b. France. After working as a journalist for French publications in England (1903-11), he moved to Quebec, where he worked as a farm hand. He was killed by a train in 1913. Of his four posthumously published novels, one, Maria Chapdelaine (1914), has become a classic of French Canadian literature. A harsh, realistic story of pioneer life in Quebec, it profoundly influenced subsequent Canadian authors.
Hennepin, Louis, 1640-1701?, French cleric and explorer in North America. A Franciscan Recollect friar, Hennepin came to Canada in 1675, meeting on the journey La Salle, who made him chaplain of his proposed Western expedition in 1678. After some time spent at Fort Frontenac the party sailed (1679) in the Griffon, the first ship on the Great Lakes, for Green Bay. La Salle crossed to the Mississippi by the Illinois route and from there sent Hennepin with the expedition, led by Michel Aco, which was the first to explore the upper Mississippi valley. They ascended the river to Minnesota, where they were captured by the Sioux. In the course of his captivity Hennepin first saw and named the Falls of St. Anthony, where Minneapolis was located afterward. He was rescued by Duluth. After returning to France, Hennepin claimed in his Description de la Louisiane (1682) the leadership and all the credit for the upper Mississippi expedition. Later, in his Nouveau Voyage (1696) and Nouvelle Découverte (1697), he falsely claimed to have descended the Mississippi to its mouth. His narratives, however, have undeniable charm and importance. He was the first to describe such parts of America as the upper Mississippi and Niagara Falls. R. G. Thwaite's translation, Hennepin's New Discovery (1903, repr. 1972) contains a biography and bibliography.
Kossuth, Louis, Hung. Kossuth Lajos, 1802-94, Hungarian revolutionary hero. Born of a Protestant family and a lawyer by training, he entered politics as a member of the diet and soon won a large following. His liberal and nationalist program did not avoid the possibility of dissolving the union of the Hungarian and Austrian crowns. He was arrested in 1837, but popular pressure forced the Metternich regime to release him in 1840. Kossuth, a fiery orator, was one of the principal figures of the Hungarian revolution of Mar., 1848. When, in April, Hungary was granted a separate government, Kossuth became finance minister. He continued and intensified his anti-Austrian agitation. His principles were liberal, but his nationalism was opposed to the fulfillment of the national aspirations of the Slavic, Romanian, and German minorities in Hungary and was particularly resented in Croatia. When the Austrian government, supported by the ban [governor] of Croatia, Count Jellachich de Buzim, prepared to move against Hungary, Kossuth became head of the Hungarian government of national defense. His government withdrew to Debrecen before the advance of the Austrians under Alfred Windischgrätz. In Apr., 1849, the Hungarian parliament declared Hungary an independent republic and Kossuth became president. The Hungarians won several victories, but in 1849, Russian troops intervened in favor of Austria, and Kossuth was obliged to resign the government to General Görgey. The Hungarian surrender at Vilagos marked the end of the republic. Kossuth fled to Turkey. He visited England and the United States and received ovations as a champion of liberty. Kossuth lived in exile in England and (after 1865) in Italy. He was dissatisfied with the Ausgleich [compromise] of 1867, by which the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was created, and he refused an offer of amnesty in 1890. After his death at Turin, Italy, his body was returned to Budapest and buried in state.

See biography by P. C. Headley (1971); I. Deak, The Lawful Revolution (1979).

Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz), 1807-73, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, b. Môtiers-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen (Ph.D., 1829), Heidelberg, and Munich (M.D., 1830). Agassiz practiced medicine briefly, but his real interest lay in scientific research. In 1831 he went to Paris, where he became a close friend of Alexander von Humboldt and studied fossil fishes under the guidance of Cuvier. In 1832 he became professor of natural history at the Univ. of Neuchâtel, which he made a noted center for scientific study. Among his publications during this period were Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (5 vol. and atlas, 1833-44), a work of historic importance in the field (although his system of classification by scales has been discarded); studies of fossil echinoderms and mollusks; and Étude sur les glaciers (1840), one of the first expositions of glacial movements and deposits, based on his own observations and measurements. Agassiz came to the United States in 1846 and two years later accepted the professorship of zoology and geology at Harvard. His first wife died in Germany in 1848, and in 1850 in Cambridge he married Elizabeth Cabot Cary (see Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot Cary). In the United States he was primarily a teacher and very popular lecturer. Emphasizing advanced and original work, he gave major impetus to the study of science directly from nature and influenced a generation of American scientists. His extensive research expeditions included one along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas from Boston to California (1871-72). His Contributions to the Natural History of the United States (4 vol., 1857-62) includes his famous "Essay on Classification," an extension of the theory of recapitulation to geologic time. Despite his own evidences for evolution, Agassiz opposed Darwinism and believed that new species could arise only through the intervention of God.

See biographies by J. Marcou (including letters, 1896), J. D. Teller (1947), and E. Lurie (1960, repr. 1967); L. Cooper, Louis Agassiz as a Teacher (rev. ed. 1945).

Vase of Favrile glass made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York City, 1896; in the Victoria and elipsis

(born Feb. 18, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 17, 1933, New York City) U.S. painter, craftsman, philanthropist, decorator, and designer. The son of the famous jeweler Charles Louis Tiffany (1812–1902), he studied painting with American painter George Inness and in Paris; he was a recognized painter before he began to experiment with stained glass in 1875. He founded a glassmaking factory in Queens, N.Y., in 1878. There he developed an iridescent glass he called Favrile, which achieved widespread popularity in Europe. After 1900 Tiffany's firm ventured into lamps, jewelry, pottery, and bibelots. He is internationally recognized as one of the greatest forces of the Art Nouveau style.

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(born April 18, 1797, Marseille, France—died Sept. 3, 1877, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris) French politician and historian. He went to Paris in 1821 as a journalist and cofounded the opposition newspaper National in 1830. In the July Revolution he supported Louis-Philippe and served as minister of the interior (1832, 1834–36) and premier and foreign minister (1836, 1840). A leader of the conservative moderates, he crushed all insurrections. Following the February Revolution, he helped elect Louis-Napoléon (later Napoleon III) president of the Second Republic. As a leader of the opposition (1863–70), he attacked Napoleon III's imperial policies. As president of the Third Republic (1871–73), he negotiated the end of the Franco-Prussian War and restored domestic order by crushing the Paris Commune. He also wrote major historical works, most importantly the huge History of the French Revolution (10 vol., 1823–27) and History of the Consulate and the Empire (20 vol., 1845–62).

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Louis Sullivan, detail of an oil painting by Frank A. Werner, 1919; in the collection of the elipsis

(born Sept. 3, 1856, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died April 14, 1924, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. architect, the father of modern U.S. architecture. Sullivan was accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris but was a restless student. After working for several Chicago firms, he joined the office of Dankmar Adler (1844–1900) in 1879, becoming Adler's partner at age 24. Their 14-year association produced more than 100 buildings, many of them landmarks. Their first important work was the Auditorium Building in Chicago (1889), a load-bearing stone structure with a 17-story tower, unadorned on the arcaded exterior and dazzlingly rich on the interior. Their most important skyscraper is the 10-story steel-framed Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Mo. (1890–91); above its two-story base, the vertical elements are stressed and horizontals recessed, and it is capped by a decorative frieze and cornice. During this period the young Frank Lloyd Wright spent six years as apprentice to Sullivan, who would be a major influence on the younger architect. In 1895 Sullivan's partnership with Adler dissolved, and his practice began a steady decline. One of his few major commissions was the Carson Pirie Scott store in Chicago (1898–1904), noted for its broad windows and exuberant ornamentation. Sullivan's ornamentation was based not on precedent but on geometry and natural forms. He considered it obvious that building design should indicate a building's functions and that, where the function does not change, the form should not change; hence his influential dictum “Form follows function.”

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Robert Louis Stevenson.

(born Nov. 13, 1850, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Dec. 3, 1894, Vailima, Samoa) Scottish essayist, novelist, and poet. He prepared for a law career but never practiced. He traveled frequently, partly in search of better climates for his tuberculosis, which would eventually cause his death at age 44. He became known for accounts such as Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) and essays in periodicals, first collected in Virginibus Puerisque (1881). His immensely popular novels Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and The Master of Ballantrae (1889) were written over the course of a few years. A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) is one of the most influential children's works of the 19th century. In his last years he lived in Samoa and produced works moving toward a new maturity, including the story “The Beach of Falesá” (1892) and the novel Weir of Hermiston (1896), his unfinished masterpiece.

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(born Feb. 1, 1882, Compton, Que., Can.—died July 25, 1973, Quebec, Que.) Prime minister of Canada (1948–57). One of Canada's most prominent lawyers, he served in the Canadian House of Commons (1942–58) and in W.L. Mackenzie King's cabinet as minister of justice and attorney general (1942–46) and minister of external affairs (1945–48). As leader of the Liberal Party (1948), he succeeded King as prime minister. He promoted Canadian unity by equalizing provincial revenues and expanded social security and university education. He supported Canadian membership in NATO and helped establish the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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orig. Ludwig Spohr

(born April 5, 1784, Brunswick, Brunswick—died Oct. 22, 1859, Kassel, Hesse) German composer and violinist. He was kapellmeister in Kassel from 1822 and remained there the rest of his life, eventually directing all the city's music. Highly prolific, he wrote 15 violin concertos, 4 clarinet concertos, many operas (including Jessonda, 1823), 9 symphonies (including The Consecration of Sound, 1832), and chamber music. Highly respected as a performer and composer in the 19th century, he has since been largely neglected.

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Louis de Saint-Just, portrait after a red chalk drawing by Christophe Guérin, 1793.

(born Aug. 25, 1767, Decize, France—died July 28, 1794, Paris) French Revolutionary leader. In support of the French Revolution, he wrote the radical Esprit de la révolution et de la constitution de France (1791) and was elected to the National Convention in 1792. A close associate of Maximilien Robespierre and a member of the Committee of Public Safety, he was elected president of the Convention in 1793 and sponsored the Ventôse (March) Decrees, which confiscated property of the Revolution's enemies and redistributed it to the poor. He led the victorious attack against the Austrians at Fleurus (in modern Belgium). A fanatical leader of the Reign of Terror, he was arrested in the Thermidorian Reaction and guillotined.

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City (pop., 2000: 348,189), east-central Missouri, U.S. Located on the Mississippi River below its confluence with the Missouri River, it was founded by Auguste Chouteau in 1764 as a trading post and was named for King Louis IX of France. It became the crossroads of westward expansion for exploring parties, fur-trading expeditions, and pioneers traveling the Santa Fe and Oregon trails. Since the 19th-century steamboat era and the arrival of the railroads in the 1850s, it has been a major transportation hub. Its diversified industries include brewing, food processing, and the manufacture of aircraft. The largest city in the state, it is home to many educational institutions, including Washington University and St. Louis University. The emblem of the city is its Gateway Arch, designed by Eero Saarinen.

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(born Jan. 11, 1924, Dijon, Fr.) French-born U.S. physiologist. He and his colleagues discovered, isolated, and synthesized hypothalamic hormones that regulate thyroid activity, cause the pituitary to release growth hormone, and regulate the activities of the pituitary and the pancreas. He shared a 1977 Nobel Prize with Andrew V. Schally and Rosalyn Yalow. Guillemin is also known for his discovery of endorphins.

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Robert Louis Stevenson.

(born Nov. 13, 1850, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Dec. 3, 1894, Vailima, Samoa) Scottish essayist, novelist, and poet. He prepared for a law career but never practiced. He traveled frequently, partly in search of better climates for his tuberculosis, which would eventually cause his death at age 44. He became known for accounts such as Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) and essays in periodicals, first collected in Virginibus Puerisque (1881). His immensely popular novels Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped (1886), and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), and The Master of Ballantrae (1889) were written over the course of a few years. A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) is one of the most influential children's works of the 19th century. In his last years he lived in Samoa and produced works moving toward a new maturity, including the story “The Beach of Falesá” (1892) and the novel Weir of Hermiston (1896), his unfinished masterpiece.

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(born Oct. 23, 1844, St. Boniface, Assiniboia, Can.—died Nov. 16, 1885, Regina, District of Assinibois, Can.) Canadian leader of the Métis people in western Canada. In 1869 Riel headed a revolt against Canadian expansion in the west that resulted in the establishment of the province of Manitoba (1870). Intermittent hostilities continued for several years thereafter, and Riel was officially outlawed. In 1885 he led a Métis uprising in Saskatchewan that was crushed by the Canadians. Riel was found guilty of treason and hanged. His death led to ethnic conflicts in Quebec and Ontario and marked the beginning of the nationalist movement.

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(born Jan. 7, 1922, Marseille, France—died May 20, 2000, Paris) French flutist. From 1947 he appeared widely in chamber music and solo recitals. In the 1950s he founded his own chamber groups, while also playing in the pit at the Paris Opéra (1956–62). Works were written for him by Francis Poulenc and others. His sweetness of tone and virtuosity in a largely Baroque repertoire, as evidenced on many admired recordings, made him the first flutist to attain international stardom.

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City (pop., 2003 est.: 147,688), capital, and main port of Mauritius. It was founded circa 1736 by the French as a port for ships rounding the Cape of Good Hope to and from Asia and Europe. With the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, the city's importance declined. It is the principal commercial centre of the island of Mauritius; its primary exports are textiles and sugar. Manufacturing and service industries, including tourism, are also based in the city. Aapravasi Ghat, an immigration depot used from 1849 to 1923 and designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006, is located there.

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(born Aug. 6, 1868, Villeneuve-sur-Fère, France—died Feb. 23, 1955, Paris) French poet, playwright, and diplomat. He converted to Catholicism at age 18. His brilliant diplomatic career began in 1892, and he eventually served as ambassador to Japan (1921–27) and the U.S. (1927–33). At the same time he pursued a literary career, expressing in poetry and drama his conception of the grand design of creation. He reached his largest audience through plays such as Break of Noon (1906), The Hostage (1911), Tidings Brought to Mary (1912), and his masterpiece, The Satin Slipper (1929); recurring themes in these works are human and divine love and the search for salvation. He wrote the librettos for Darius Milhaud's opera Christopher Columbus (1930) and Arthur Honegger's oratorio Joan of Arc (1938). His best-known poetic work is the confessional Five Great Odes (1910).

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(born Dec. 27, 1822, Dole, France—died Sept. 28, 1895, Saint-Cloud, near Paris) French chemist and microbiologist. Early in his career, after studies at the École Normale Supérieure, he researched the effects of polarized light on chemical compounds. In 1857 he became director of scientific studies at the École. His studies of fermentation of alcohol and milk (souring) showed that yeast could reproduce without free oxygen (the Pasteur effect); he deduced that fermentation and food spoilage were due to the activity of microorganisms and could be prevented by excluding or destroying them. His work overturned the concept of spontaneous generation (life arising from nonliving matter) and led to heat pasteurization, allowing vinegar, wine, and beer to be produced and transported without spoiling. He saved the French silk industry by his work on silkworm diseases. In 1881 he perfected a way to isolate and weaken germs, and he went on to develop vaccines against anthrax in sheep and cholera in chickens, following Edward Jenner's example. He turned his attention to researching rabies, and in 1885 his inoculating with a weakened virus saved the life of a boy bitten by a rabid dog. In 1888 he founded the Pasteur Institute for rabies research, prevention, and treatment.

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(born Oct. 7, 1786, Montreal, Que.—died Sept. 23, 1871, Montebello, Que., Can.) Canadian politician. He was elected to the legislative assembly of Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1808 and became its speaker in 1815. A leader of the French-Canadian Party, he opposed the British-dominated government of Lower Canada. In 1834 he helped draft the 92 Resolutions, a statement of French-Canadian demands and grievances. When the British governor rejected the resolutions, hostilities broke out. Papineau escaped to the U.S. and then to France, where he lived from 1839 to 1844. He returned to Canada under an amnesty in 1844 and served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1848 to 1854, though he never regained his leadership of the French-Canadians.

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Musset, oil painting by Charles Landelle; in the Louvre, Paris

(born Dec. 11, 1810, Paris, France—died May 2, 1857, Paris) French playwright and poet. A member of a noble family, Musset came under the influence of Romanticism in adolescence and produced his first work, Stories of Spain and of Italy, in 1830. After an early play failed, he published historical tragedies (e.g., Lorenzaccio, 1834) and comedies. Although he refused to let them be performed, he is remembered today primarily as a dramatist. His poetry includes light satirical pieces and passionate, eloquent lyrics such as “The October Night” (1837). A fitful love affair with George Sand inspired some of his finest work.

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orig. Morris Louis Bernstein

(born Nov. 24, 1912, Baltimore, Md., U.S.—died Sept. 7, 1962, Washington, D.C.) U.S. painter. He studied painting at the Maryland Institute and worked as an easel painter for the WPA Federal Art Project. Inspired by Helen Frankenthaler's colour stain technique, in 1954 he began a series of paintings h1d Veils, featuring stained vertical waves of colour; these works had an impersonal, nonpainterly quality. During this period he became associated with the New York school of Abstract Expressionism. His later work featured diagonal parallel streams of colour that flowed across the bottom corners of the picture plane. In his last series, Stripes, bunched, straight vertical bands of colour are surrounded by empty canvas.

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(born Dec. 10, 1851, Adams Center, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 26, 1931, Lake Placid, Fla.) U.S. librarian. He graduated from Amherst College in 1874, whereupon he became acting librarian there. In 1876 he published A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library, in which he outlined the Dewey Decimal Classification system. He was one of the founders of the American Library Association and of Library Journal (both 1876). He set up the School of Library Economy, the first U.S. institution for training librarians. He also reorganized the N.Y. State Library (1889–1906) and established the system of traveling libraries and picture collections. A cofounder of the Spelling Reform Assn., he respelled his own name.

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orig. Eliezer Mayer or Lazar Mayer

(born July 4, 1885, Minsk, Russian Empire—died Oct. 29, 1957, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. film executive. He immigrated to Canada and then the U.S. with his family and worked in his father's scrap-iron business from age 14. He bought a small nickelodeon near Boston in 1907, and by 1918 he owned the largest chain of movie theatres in New England. He founded a film production company in Hollywood in 1917 and merged it with other companies to form MGM in 1925. Under his leadership, MGM became Hollywood's largest and most prestigious studio, aided by his artistic director, Irving Thalberg. Mayer had under contract many of the outstanding screen stars of the day, including Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and Judy Garland. He was considered the most powerful Hollywood executive until his forced retirement in 1951. He was the chief founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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(born Oct. 30, 1932, Thumeries, France—died Nov. 23, 1995, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) French film director. He made his first feature film, Frantic, in 1957. Malle gained commercial success with The Lovers (1958), starring Jeanne Moreau, and he became a leading figure in the French New Wave. In The Fire Within (1963), Thief of Paris (1967), Murmur of the Heart (1971), and Lacombe, Lucien (1973), he achieved emotional realism and stylistic simplicity. In 1975 he moved to the U.S., where he directed films such as Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1980), My Dinner with André (1981), Au revoir les enfants (1987), and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994).

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MacNeice

(born Sept. 12, 1907, Belfast, Ire.—died Sept. 3, 1963, London, Eng.) British poet and playwright. He published his first book of poetry, Blind Fireworks (1929), while studying at Oxford. In the 1930s he became known as one of a group of socially committed young poets that included W.H. Auden, C. Day-Lewis, and Stephen Spender. His volumes include Autumn Journal (1939) and The Burning Perch (1963). He wrote and produced radio verse plays for the BBC, notably The Dark Tower (1947), with music by Benjamin Britten. Among his prose works are Letters from Iceland (1937; with Auden) and The Poetry of W.B. Yeats (1941).

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(born Dec. 11, 1803, La Côte-Saint-André, France—died March 8, 1869, Paris) French composer. He studied guitar in his early years and later studied music at the Paris Conservatoire, against his parents' wishes. His first great score was the stormy Symphonie fantastique (1830), which became a landmark of the Romantic era. Impulsive and passionate, he was a contentious critic and gadfly constantly at war with the musical establishment. Though he was the most compelling French musical figure of his time, his idiosyncratic compositional style kept almost all his music out of the repertory until the mid-20th century. His works include the operas Benvenuto Cellini (1837) and Les Troyens (1858); the program symphonies Harold in Italy (1834) and Romeo and Juliet (1839); and the choral dramas La Damnation de Faust (1846) and L'Enfance du Christ (1854). He was also known as a brilliant conductor with an unsurpassed knowledge of the orchestra; his orchestration treatise (1843) is the most influential such work ever written.

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orig. Morris Louis Bernstein

(born Nov. 24, 1912, Baltimore, Md., U.S.—died Sept. 7, 1962, Washington, D.C.) U.S. painter. He studied painting at the Maryland Institute and worked as an easel painter for the WPA Federal Art Project. Inspired by Helen Frankenthaler's colour stain technique, in 1954 he began a series of paintings h1d Veils, featuring stained vertical waves of colour; these works had an impersonal, nonpainterly quality. During this period he became associated with the New York school of Abstract Expressionism. His later work featured diagonal parallel streams of colour that flowed across the bottom corners of the picture plane. In his last series, Stripes, bunched, straight vertical bands of colour are surrounded by empty canvas.

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in full Joseph Louis Barrow

Joe Louis, 1946.

(born May 13, 1914, Lafayette, Ala., U.S.—died April 12, 1981, Las Vegas, Nev.) U.S. boxer. Louis was born into a sharecropper's family and only began boxing after the family moved to Detroit. He won the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union h1 in 1934 and turned professional that year. During his career he defeated six previous or subsequent heavyweight champions: Primo Carnera, Max Baer, Jack Sharkey, James J. Braddock, Max Schmeling, and Jersey Joe Walcott. Nicknamed “the Brown Bomber,” Louis gained the world heavyweight championship by defeating Braddock in 1937 and held the h1 until 1949. Two of Louis's most famous bouts, those with the German boxer Max Schmeling, were invested with nationalist and racial implications, as Schmeling was seen, unfairly, as the embodiment of Aryanism and the Nazi party. Louis lost to Schmeling in 1936 but defeated him in one round in 1938, causing much jubilation among Americans, and especially African Americans. He successfully defended his h1 25 times (21 by knockout) before retiring in 1949. His service in the U.S. Army during World War II no doubt prevented him from defending his h1 many more times. He made unsuccessful comeback attempts against Ezzard Charles in 1950 and Rocky Marciano in 1951.

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or Ludwig I

(born Aug. 25, 1786, Strasbourg, France—died Feb. 29, 1868, Nice) King of Bavaria (1825–48). The son of Maximilian I, Louis won early acclaim as a liberal and a German nationalist, but after his accession he feuded with the Diet and came to distrust all democratic institutions. By 1837 the reactionary Bavarian government had begun to erode the liberal constitution of 1818 that Louis had worked to establish. An outstanding patron of the arts, he collected the art works that fill Munich's museums and transformed Munich into the artistic centre of Germany. His planning created the city's present layout and classic style. He caused scandal by his affair with Lola Montez, and at the outbreak of the Revolutions of 1848 he abdicated in favour of his son Maximilian II.

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(born Feb. 20, 1901, Osel, Estonia, Russian Empire—died March 17, 1974, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Estonian-born U.S. architect. He came to the U.S. as a child and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. One of the century's most original architects, Kahn turned from the International Style to a timeless, elegant Brutalism evocative of ancient ruins. His Richards Medical Research Building (1960–65) at the University of Pennsylvania isolated “servant” spaces (stairwells, elevators, vents, and pipes) in four towers distinct from “served” spaces (laboratories and offices). His fortresslike National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangl. (1962–74), utilized geometric shapes to admit light to its inner domed mosque. Like R. Buckminster Fuller, Kahn was concerned about wasteful use of natural resources; his urban-planning schemes proposed geodesic skyscrapers and huge car “silos.” He taught at Yale University (1947–57) and the University of Pennsylvania (1957–74), where appreciation for his intellect gained him a cult status.

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(born May 22, 1622, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France—died Nov. 28, 1698, Quebec, New France) French courtier and governor of New France (1672–82, 1689–98). Despite a record of misgovernment, he encouraged exploration that led to the expansion of the French empire in Canada. He established fur-trading posts that brought him into conflict with the Montreal fur traders and later expanded the posts west. He engaged in disputes with the officials and clergy of New France. The Iroquois Confederacy, which had remained on good terms with the French until 1675, turned against the French, and the colony was left defenseless. Louis XIV recalled Frontenac in 1682. Reappointed when the French and Indian War started (1689), he distinguished himself by repulsing British attacks on Quebec.

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orig. Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, count de Provence

(born Nov. 17, 1755, Versailles, France—died Sept. 16, 1824, Paris) King of France by h1 from 1795 and in fact from 1814 to 1824. He fled the country in 1791, during the French Revolution, and issued counterrevolutionary manifestos and organized émigré-nobility associations. He became regent for his nephew Louis XVII after the 1793 execution of Louis XVI, and at the dauphin's death in 1795 he proclaimed himself king. When the allied armies entered Paris in 1814, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand negotiated the Bourbon Restoration and Louis was received with jubilation. He promised a constitutional monarchy, and the Charter of 1814 was adopted; after the interruption of the Hundred Days, when Napoleon returned from Elba, he resumed his constitutional monarchy. The legislature included a strong right-wing majority, and though Louis opposed the extremism of the ultras, they exercised increasing control and thwarted his attempts to heal the wounds left by the Revolution. He was succeeded at his death by his brother, Charles X.

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orig. Louis-Charles

(born March 27, 1785, Versailles, France—died June 8, 1795, Paris) Titular king of France from 1793. The second son of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, he became heir to the throne on his brother's death, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolution. In 1792 he was imprisoned with the rest of the royal family. When his father was beheaded in 1793, the French émigré nobility proclaimed Louis-Charles king. He died in prison at age 10, but the secrecy surrounding his last months gave rise to rumours that he was not dead, and over the next few decades more than 30 persons claimed to be Louis XVII. DNA tests in 2000 established that the child who died in 1795 was in fact the son of Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette.

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Louis XVI, oil on canvas by Antoine-François Callet, 1786; in the Musée Carnavalet, elipsis

(born Aug. 23, 1754, Versailles, France—died Jan. 21, 1793, Paris) Last king of France (1774–92) in the Bourbon line preceding the French Revolution. In 1770 he married Marie-Antoinette, and in 1774 he succeeded to the throne on the death of his grandfather, Louis XV. Lacking in power and strength of character, he was unable to give the necessary support to his ministers, including Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot and Jacques Necker, in their efforts to stabilize France's tottering finances. In 1774 he boosted the aristocracy by restoring the powers of the parlements. Aristocratic opposition to the radical economic reforms of Charles-Alexandre de Calonne forced the king to summon the Estates-General in 1788, setting the Revolution in motion. Influenced by the reactionary court faction, he defended the privileges of the clergy and nobility. He dismissed Necker in 1789 and refused to sanction the achievements of the National Assembly. His resistance to popular demands was one cause for the royal family's forcible transfer from Versailles to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. He lost credibility further when he attempted to escape the capital in 1791 and was caught at Varennes and returned to Paris. Thereafter he was dominated by the queen, who encouraged him to a policy of subterfuge instead of implementing the constitution of 1791, which he had sworn to maintain. In 1792 the Tuileries was captured by the people and militia, and the First French Republic was proclaimed. When proof of his counterrevolutionary intrigues with foreigners was found, he was tried for treason. Condemned to death, he went to the guillotine in 1793. His dignity during his trial and execution only somewhat redeemed his reputation.

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(born Feb. 15, 1710, Versailles, France—died May 10, 1774, Versailles) King of France (1715–74). An orphan from age three, Louis succeeded to the throne on the death of his great-grandfather Louis XIV (1715), under the regency of Philippe II, duke d'Orléans (1674–1723). His marriage to Princess Marie Leszczynska of Poland (1703–68) in 1725 led to France's involvement in the War of the Polish Succession (1733–38). He chose André-Hercule de Fleury as his chief minister in 1726, and his own influence became perceptible only after Fleury's death in 1744. Louis's mistresses, particularly the marchioness de Pompadour, held considerable political influence. Louis brought France into the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) and the Seven Years' War (1756–63), by which France lost to Britain almost all its colonial possessions. As the crown's moral and political authority declined, the Parlements gained in power, preventing fiscal reform. The king died hated by his subjects.

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known as the Sun King

(born Sept. 5, 1638, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France—died Sept. 1, 1715, Versailles) King of France (1643–1715), ruler during one of France's most brilliant periods and the symbol of absolute monarchy of the Neoclassical age. He succeeded his father, Louis XIII, at age four, under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria. In 1648 the nobles and the Paris Parlement, who hated the prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, rose against the crown and started the Fronde. In 1653, victorious over the rebels, Mazarin gained absolute power, though the king was of age. In 1660 Louis married Marie-Thérèse of Austria (1638–83), daughter of Philip IV of Spain. When Mazarin died in 1661, Louis astonished his ministers by informing them that he intended to assume responsibility for ruling the kingdom. A believer in dictatorship by divine right, he viewed himself as God's representative on earth. He was assisted by his able ministers, Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the marquis de Louvois. Louis weakened the nobles' power by making them dependent on the crown. A patron of the arts, he protected writers and devoted himself to building splendid palaces, including the extravagant Versailles, where he kept most of the nobility under his watchful eye. In 1667 he invaded the Spanish Netherlands in the War of Devolution (1667–68) and again in 1672 in the Third Dutch War. The Sun King was at his zenith; he had extended France's northern and eastern borders and was adored at his court. In 1680 a scandal involving his mistress, the marchioness de Montespan (1641–1707), made him fearful for his reputation, and he openly renounced pleasure. The queen died in 1683, and he secretly married the pious marchioness de Maintenon. After trying to convert French Protestants by force, he revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Fear of his expansionism led to alliances against France during the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14). Louis died at age 77 at the end of the longest reign in European history.

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(born Sept. 27, 1601, Fontainebleau, France—died May 14, 1643, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) King of France (1610–43). He was the son of Henry IV and Marie de Médicis. His mother was regent until 1614 but continued to govern until 1617; she arranged Louis's marriage to the Spanish Anne of Austria in 1615. Resentful of his mother's power, Louis exiled her, but Cardinal de Richelieu, her principal adviser, reconciled them in 1620. In 1624 Louis made Richelieu his principal minister, and the two cooperated closely to make France a leading European power, consolidating royal authority in France and fighting to break the dominant rule of the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs in the Thirty Years' War. Pro-Spanish Catholic zealots led by Marie de Médicis appealed to Louis to reject Richelieu's policy of supporting the Protestant states, but Louis stood by his minister and his mother withdrew into exile. France declared war on Spain in 1635 and had won substantial victories by the time Richelieu died in 1642. Louis was succeeded by his son Louis XIV.

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(born June 27, 1462, Blois, France—died Jan. 1, 1515, Paris) King of France (1498–1515). He became king on the death of his cousin Charles VIII. He annulled his marriage to marry Charles's widow, Anne of Brittany, and to reinforce the union of her duchy with France. He continued France's part in the Italian Wars, often with disastrous results. He conquered Milan in 1499, then lost it, but was later recognized as duke of Milan by Emperor Maximilian I. He concluded a treaty with Ferdinand V that partitioned Naples (1500), but the two kings went to war and Louis lost all of Naples (1504). In 1508 he consolidated the League of Cambrai, but when the league fell apart in 1510 its members joined England in a Holy League against France, invading it several times. Despite his failures, Louis was highly popular with the French, who called him the “Father of the People.”

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(born July 3, 1423, Bourges, France—died Aug. 30, 1483, Plessis-les-Tours) King of France (1461–83). He plotted against his father, Charles VII, and was exiled to Dauphiné (1445), which he ruled as a sovereign state until Charles approached its borders with an army (1456). Louis then fled to the Netherlands, returning to France to become king on his father's death in 1461. He fought rebellious French princes (1465) and made concessions to Charles the Bold (1468). Seeking to strengthen and unify France, he destroyed the power of the Burgundians in 1477. He regained control of Boulonnais, Picardy, and Burgundy, took possession of Franche-Comté and Artois (1482), annexed Anjou (1471), and inherited Maine and Provence (1481).

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known as Louis the Younger

(born circa 1120—died Sept. 18, 1180, Paris) King of France (1137–80). One of the Capetian kings, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1137, thus temporarily extending his kingdom to the Pyrenees. Doubtful of her fidelity, he had the marriage annulled in 1152 and, after the death of his second wife, married Alix of Champagne, who bore him his son and heir, Philip II Augustus. Eleanor married the future Henry II of England, who took control of Aquitaine and carried on a long rivalry with Louis (1152–74) marked by recurrent warfare and constant intrigue. Louis was joined by Conrad III in leading the Second Crusade (1147–49), which failed in all its objectives.

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known as Louis the Fat

(born 1081—died Aug. 1, 1137) King of France (1108–37). He was effective ruler of France well before the death of his father, Philip I, in 1108, and he spent much time in subduing the unruly French barons. He fought Henry I of England (1104–13, 1116–20) and prevented a threatened invasion by Emperor Henry V (1124). He died a month after arranging his son's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine, whereupon his son succeeded him as Louis VII.

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(born Feb. 1, 1882, Compton, Que., Can.—died July 25, 1973, Quebec, Que.) Prime minister of Canada (1948–57). One of Canada's most prominent lawyers, he served in the Canadian House of Commons (1942–58) and in W.L. Mackenzie King's cabinet as minister of justice and attorney general (1942–46) and minister of external affairs (1945–48). As leader of the Liberal Party (1948), he succeeded King as prime minister. He promoted Canadian unity by equalizing provincial revenues and expanded social security and university education. He supported Canadian membership in NATO and helped establish the St. Lawrence Seaway.

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orig. Ludwig Spohr

(born April 5, 1784, Brunswick, Brunswick—died Oct. 22, 1859, Kassel, Hesse) German composer and violinist. He was kapellmeister in Kassel from 1822 and remained there the rest of his life, eventually directing all the city's music. Highly prolific, he wrote 15 violin concertos, 4 clarinet concertos, many operas (including Jessonda, 1823), 9 symphonies (including The Consecration of Sound, 1832), and chamber music. Highly respected as a performer and composer in the 19th century, he has since been largely neglected.

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(born Oct. 23, 1844, St. Boniface, Assiniboia, Can.—died Nov. 16, 1885, Regina, District of Assinibois, Can.) Canadian leader of the Métis people in western Canada. In 1869 Riel headed a revolt against Canadian expansion in the west that resulted in the establishment of the province of Manitoba (1870). Intermittent hostilities continued for several years thereafter, and Riel was officially outlawed. In 1885 he led a Métis uprising in Saskatchewan that was crushed by the Canadians. Riel was found guilty of treason and hanged. His death led to ethnic conflicts in Quebec and Ontario and marked the beginning of the nationalist movement.

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(born Dec. 27, 1822, Dole, France—died Sept. 28, 1895, Saint-Cloud, near Paris) French chemist and microbiologist. Early in his career, after studies at the École Normale Supérieure, he researched the effects of polarized light on chemical compounds. In 1857 he became director of scientific studies at the École. His studies of fermentation of alcohol and milk (souring) showed that yeast could reproduce without free oxygen (the Pasteur effect); he deduced that fermentation and food spoilage were due to the activity of microorganisms and could be prevented by excluding or destroying them. His work overturned the concept of spontaneous generation (life arising from nonliving matter) and led to heat pasteurization, allowing vinegar, wine, and beer to be produced and transported without spoiling. He saved the French silk industry by his work on silkworm diseases. In 1881 he perfected a way to isolate and weaken germs, and he went on to develop vaccines against anthrax in sheep and cholera in chickens, following Edward Jenner's example. He turned his attention to researching rabies, and in 1885 his inoculating with a weakened virus saved the life of a boy bitten by a rabid dog. In 1888 he founded the Pasteur Institute for rabies research, prevention, and treatment.

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(born May 8, 1829, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died Dec. 18, 1869, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.) U.S. composer and pianist. He was exposed early to the music of New Orleans's Caribbean and Latin American population. Sent to France at age 13 to study music, he quickly became known throughout Europe as a piano virtuoso and a composer of exotic piano works. He returned in 1853 and toured the U.S., West Indies, and South America. Though he wrote operas and symphonies, he is known for his more than 200 piano pieces, including La Bamboula, Le Bananier, Le Banjo, L'Union, and The Dying Poet. Gottschalk was the first American pianist to achieve international recognition and the first American composer to employ Latin American and Creole folk themes and rhythms.

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(born Oct. 30, 1932, Thumeries, France—died Nov. 23, 1995, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) French film director. He made his first feature film, Frantic, in 1957. Malle gained commercial success with The Lovers (1958), starring Jeanne Moreau, and he became a leading figure in the French New Wave. In The Fire Within (1963), Thief of Paris (1967), Murmur of the Heart (1971), and Lacombe, Lucien (1973), he achieved emotional realism and stylistic simplicity. In 1975 he moved to the U.S., where he directed films such as Pretty Baby (1978), Atlantic City (1980), My Dinner with André (1981), Au revoir les enfants (1987), and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994).

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MacNeice

(born Sept. 12, 1907, Belfast, Ire.—died Sept. 3, 1963, London, Eng.) British poet and playwright. He published his first book of poetry, Blind Fireworks (1929), while studying at Oxford. In the 1930s he became known as one of a group of socially committed young poets that included W.H. Auden, C. Day-Lewis, and Stephen Spender. His volumes include Autumn Journal (1939) and The Burning Perch (1963). He wrote and produced radio verse plays for the BBC, notably The Dark Tower (1947), with music by Benjamin Britten. Among his prose works are Letters from Iceland (1937; with Auden) and The Poetry of W.B. Yeats (1941).

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orig. Louis Dearborn LaMoore

(born March 22, 1908, Jamestown, N.D., U.S.—died June 10, 1988, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. author of westerns. He left school at age 15 and traveled the world before beginning his writing career in the 1940s. He used pseudonyms, including Tex Burns and Jim Mayo, until Hondo (1953) became a successful film. His more than 100 works, mostly formula westerns that convincingly portray frontier life, have sold 200 million copies in 20 languages, and more than 30—including Kilkenny (1954), The Burning Hills (1956), Guns of the Timberland (1955), and How the West Was Won (1963)—were the basis of films.

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(born Oct. 7, 1786, Montreal, Que.—died Sept. 23, 1871, Montebello, Que., Can.) Canadian politician. He was elected to the legislative assembly of Lower Canada (now Quebec) in 1808 and became its speaker in 1815. A leader of the French-Canadian Party, he opposed the British-dominated government of Lower Canada. In 1834 he helped draft the 92 Resolutions, a statement of French-Canadian demands and grievances. When the British governor rejected the resolutions, hostilities broke out. Papineau escaped to the U.S. and then to France, where he lived from 1839 to 1844. He returned to Canada under an amnesty in 1844 and served in the Canadian House of Commons from 1848 to 1854, though he never regained his leadership of the French-Canadians.

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(born before Sept. 21, 1645, probably Beaupré, near Quebec—died after May 1700, Quebec province) French Canadian explorer and cartographer. He led an expedition in the Great Lakes region in 1669. In 1672 he was commissioned by the governor of New France to explore the Mississippi in the company of Jacques Marquette and five others. In 1673 the party set out in birchbark canoes across Lake Michigan, following the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi, then down the Mississippi to its confluence with the Arkansas. They concluded that the river flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico and not, as hoped, into the Pacific Ocean. After their return, Jolliet explored areas of Hudson Bay and the Labrador coast.

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(born before Sept. 21, 1645, probably Beaupré, near Quebec—died after May 1700, Quebec province) French Canadian explorer and cartographer. He led an expedition in the Great Lakes region in 1669. In 1672 he was commissioned by the governor of New France to explore the Mississippi in the company of Jacques Marquette and five others. In 1673 the party set out in birchbark canoes across Lake Michigan, following the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi, then down the Mississippi to its confluence with the Arkansas. They concluded that the river flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico and not, as hoped, into the Pacific Ocean. After their return, Jolliet explored areas of Hudson Bay and the Labrador coast.

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(born Feb. 20, 1901, Osel, Estonia, Russian Empire—died March 17, 1974, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Estonian-born U.S. architect. He came to the U.S. as a child and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. One of the century's most original architects, Kahn turned from the International Style to a timeless, elegant Brutalism evocative of ancient ruins. His Richards Medical Research Building (1960–65) at the University of Pennsylvania isolated “servant” spaces (stairwells, elevators, vents, and pipes) in four towers distinct from “served” spaces (laboratories and offices). His fortresslike National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangl. (1962–74), utilized geometric shapes to admit light to its inner domed mosque. Like R. Buckminster Fuller, Kahn was concerned about wasteful use of natural resources; his urban-planning schemes proposed geodesic skyscrapers and huge car “silos.” He taught at Yale University (1947–57) and the University of Pennsylvania (1957–74), where appreciation for his intellect gained him a cult status.

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or St. Louis

(born April 25, 1214, Poissy, France—died Aug. 25, 1279, near Tunis, Tun.; canonized Aug. 11, 1297; feast day August 25) King of France (1226–70). He inherited the throne at age 12. His mother served as regent until 1234, helping to subdue rebellious barons and Albigensian heretics (see Cathari). Louis led a Crusade (1248–50) in hopes of regaining Jerusalem and Damascus, but his troops were badly defeated by the Egyptians. On his return he reorganized the royal administrative system and standardized coinage. He built the extraordinary Sainte-Chapelle to house a religious relic believed to be Jesus' crown of thorns. Louis made peace with the English in the Treaty of Paris (1259), allowing Henry III to keep Aquitaine and neighboring lands but obliging him to declare himself Louis's vassal. He died of plague during a Crusade. The most popular of the Capetian kings, his reputation for justness and piety led the French to venerate him as a saint even before his canonization in 1297.

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or Ludwig IV known as Louis the Bavarian

(born 1283, Munich, Ger.—died Oct. 11, 1347, Munich) German king (1314–47) and uncrowned Holy Roman emperor (1328–47). As the Luxembourg candidate for emperor, he was opposed by the Habsburg candidate Frederick III of Austria. Both men were elected and crowned king in 1314, and Louis's forces defeated Frederick's army in 1322. A conflict with Pope John XXII over the appointment of the imperial vicar in Italy led to his excommunication (1324). To placate his opponents, Louis agreed to rule jointly with Frederick, an arrangement that continued until Frederick's death (1330). He accepted the imperial crown from the Roman people instead of from the pope (1328) and backed the appointment of an antipope. In 1346 Pope Clement VI secured the election of a rival king, Charles of Moravia, and Louis died of a heart attack before finishing his preparations for war.

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or Ludwig II also known as Mad King Ludwig

(born Aug. 25, 1845, Nymphenburg Palace, Munich—died June 13, 1886, Starnberger See, Bavaria) King of Bavaria (1864–86). The son of Maximilian II of Bavaria, he supported Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). He brought his territories into the newly founded German Empire in 1871 but concerned himself only intermittently with affairs of state, preferring a life of increasingly morbid seclusion. A lifelong patron of the composer Richard Wagner, he developed a mania for extravagant building projects; the most fantastic, Neuschwanstein, was a fairy-tale castle decorated with scenes from Wagner's operas. He drowned himself three days after he was formally declared insane.

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Louis Sullivan, detail of an oil painting by Frank A. Werner, 1919; in the collection of the elipsis

(born Sept. 3, 1856, Boston, Mass., U.S.—died April 14, 1924, Chicago, Ill.) U.S. architect, the father of modern U.S. architecture. Sullivan was accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris but was a restless student. After working for several Chicago firms, he joined the office of Dankmar Adler (1844–1900) in 1879, becoming Adler's partner at age 24. Their 14-year association produced more than 100 buildings, many of them landmarks. Their first important work was the Auditorium Building in Chicago (1889), a load-bearing stone structure with a 17-story tower, unadorned on the arcaded exterior and dazzlingly rich on the interior. Their most important skyscraper is the 10-story steel-framed Wainwright Building, St. Louis, Mo. (1890–91); above its two-story base, the vertical elements are stressed and horizontals recessed, and it is capped by a decorative frieze and cornice. During this period the young Frank Lloyd Wright spent six years as apprentice to Sullivan, who would be a major influence on the younger architect. In 1895 Sullivan's partnership with Adler dissolved, and his practice began a steady decline. One of his few major commissions was the Carson Pirie Scott store in Chicago (1898–1904), noted for its broad windows and exuberant ornamentation. Sullivan's ornamentation was based not on precedent but on geometry and natural forms. He considered it obvious that building design should indicate a building's functions and that, where the function does not change, the form should not change; hence his influential dictum “Form follows function.”

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(born May 12, 1626, Ath, Belg.—died after 1701, Rome?, Italy) French missionary and explorer. A Franciscan, he traveled to Canada in 1675 with La Salle. They explored the Great Lakes region, founding Fort Crèvecoeur (near modern Peoria, Ill.) in 1680. When La Salle returned for supplies, Hennepin and others explored the upper Mississippi River. They were captured by Sioux Indians and taken to a site Hennepin named the Falls of St. Anthony (later Minneapolis); after four months they were rescued by Daniel DuLhut. Hennepin returned to France in 1682 and wrote an account of his journeys.

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orig. Louis Eugene Walcott

(born May 11, 1933, Bronx, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. religious leader. He joined the Nation of Islam in 1955, and for a time he assisted Malcolm X in Boston. After Malcolm converted to Sunni Islam, Farrakhan denounced him and replaced him as minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Farrakhan later expressed regret at having contributed to the climate of antagonism that preceded Malcolm's assassination in 1965. When Warith Deen Mohammed, Elijah Muhammad's successor as leader of the Nation of Islam, gradually began integrating the organization into the orthodox Muslim community, Farrakhan broke away and formed his own organization, also called the Nation of Islam (1978). A compelling orator whose rhetoric often descended into overt anti-Semitism, Farrakhan was nonetheless effective in encouraging African American self-reliance and unity. He was the main organizer of the Million Man March on Washington, D.C., in 1995. In 2000 Farrakhan and Mohammed recognized each other as fellow Muslims, and Farrakhan subsequently moved his group closer to orthodox Islam and moderated his racial remarks.

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Louis Brandeis.

(born Nov. 13, 1856, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—died Oct. 5, 1941, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. The son of Bohemian Jewish immigrants, he attended schools in Kentucky and Germany before obtaining his law degree from Harvard (1877). As a lawyer in Boston (1877–1916), he was known as “the people's attorney” for his defense of the constitutionality of several state hours-and-wages laws, his devising of a savings-bank life-insurance plan for working people, and his efforts to strengthen the government's antitrust power. His work influenced passage in 1914 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. He also developed what came to be called the “Brandeis brief,” in which economic and sociological data, historical material, and expert opinion are marshaled to support a legal argument. Appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States (1916), he was noted for his devotion to freedom of speech. Many of his minority opinions, in which he was often aligned with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., later were accepted by the court in the New Deal era. His appointment as the first Jewish justice was vigorously opposed by some business interests and anti-Semitic groups. He served until 1939. Brandeis University is named for him.

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Vase of Favrile glass made by Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York City, 1896; in the Victoria and elipsis

(born Feb. 18, 1848, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Jan. 17, 1933, New York City) U.S. painter, craftsman, philanthropist, decorator, and designer. The son of the famous jeweler Charles Louis Tiffany (1812–1902), he studied painting with American painter George Inness and in Paris; he was a recognized painter before he began to experiment with stained glass in 1875. He founded a glassmaking factory in Queens, N.Y., in 1878. There he developed an iridescent glass he called Favrile, which achieved widespread popularity in Europe. After 1900 Tiffany's firm ventured into lamps, jewelry, pottery, and bibelots. He is internationally recognized as one of the greatest forces of the Art Nouveau style.

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orig. Eliezer Mayer or Lazar Mayer

(born July 4, 1885, Minsk, Russian Empire—died Oct. 29, 1957, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) Russian-born U.S. film executive. He immigrated to Canada and then the U.S. with his family and worked in his father's scrap-iron business from age 14. He bought a small nickelodeon near Boston in 1907, and by 1918 he owned the largest chain of movie theatres in New England. He founded a film production company in Hollywood in 1917 and merged it with other companies to form MGM in 1925. Under his leadership, MGM became Hollywood's largest and most prestigious studio, aided by his artistic director, Irving Thalberg. Mayer had under contract many of the outstanding screen stars of the day, including Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and Judy Garland. He was considered the most powerful Hollywood executive until his forced retirement in 1951. He was the chief founder of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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Louis Braille, portrait bust by an unknown artist.

(born Jan. 4, 1809, Coupvray, near Paris, France—died Jan. 6, 1852, Paris) French educator who developed the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind. Himself blinded at the age of three in an accident, he went to Paris in 1819 to attend the National Institute for Blind Children, and from 1826 he taught there. Braille adapted a method created by Charles Barbier to develop his own simplified system.

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(born Sept. 27, 1862, near Greytown, Natal [South Africa]—died Aug. 27, 1919, Pretoria, Transvaal) First prime minister (1910–19) of the Union of South Africa. Botha was elected to the South African Republic's parliament in 1897, where he sided with moderates against Pres. Paul Kruger's hostile policy toward Uitlanders (non-Boer, mostly English, settlers). In the South African War he commanded southern forces besieging Ladysmith and then tried unsuccessfully to defend the Transvaal. As prime minister he sought earnestly to appease the English-speaking population and was bitterly attacked by Afrikaner nationalists. In World War I he acceded to British requests to conquer German South West Africa (Namibia).

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Louis Blanc.

(born Oct. 29, 1811, Madrid, Spain—died Dec. 6, 1882, Cannes, France) French utopian socialist and journalist. In 1839 he founded the socialist newspaper Revue du Progrès and serially published his The Organization of Labour, which described his theory of worker-controlled “social workshops” that would gradually take over production until a socialist society came into being. He was a member of the provisional government of the Second Republic (1848) but was forced to flee to England after workers unsuccessfully revolted. In exile (1848–70), he wrote a history of the French Revolution and other political works.

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(born Aug. 25, 1862, Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France—died Oct. 9, 1934, Marseille) French politician. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1889, he served in various conservative governments. He was appointed premier (1913) and secured the passage of a bill requiring three years' compulsive military service. He represented France at the Conference of Genoa, entered the Senate, and became chairman of the reparations commission. Named foreign minister in 1934, he was assassinated with King Alexander of Yugoslavia during the latter's visit to France.

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orig. Louis Andrieux

(born Oct. 3, 1897, Paris, Fr.—died Dec. 24, 1982, Paris) French poet, novelist, and essayist. He was introduced by André Breton into avant-garde circles, and the two cofounded the Surrealist review Littérature in 1919. From 1927 he was increasingly a political activist and spokesman for communism, which resulted in a break with the Surrealists. Among his works are the novel tetralogy Le Monde réel, 4 vol. (1933–44), describing the class struggle of the proletariat; the huge novel Les Communistes, 6 vol. (1949–51); novels of veiled autobiography; and volumes of poems expressing patriotism and love for his wife. He was editor of the communist weekly of arts and literature, Les Lettres françaises, 1953–72.

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(born May 28, 1807, Motier, Switz.—died Dec. 14, 1873, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.) Swiss-born U.S. naturalist, geologist, and teacher. After studies in Switzerland and Germany, he moved to the U.S. in 1846. He did landmark work on glacier activity and extinct fishes. He became famous for his innovative teaching methods, which encouraged learning through direct observation of nature, and his term as a zoology professor at Harvard University revolutionized the study of natural history in the U.S.; every notable American teacher of natural history in the late 19th century was a pupil either of Agassiz or of one of his students. In addition, he was an outstanding science administrator, promoter, and fund-raiser. He was a lifelong opponent of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. His second wife, Elizabeth Agassiz, cofounder and first president of Radcliffe College, and his son, Alexander Agassiz, were also noted naturalists.

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Louis de Saint-Just, portrait after a red chalk drawing by Christophe Guérin, 1793.

(born Aug. 25, 1767, Decize, France—died July 28, 1794, Paris) French Revolutionary leader. In support of the French Revolution, he wrote the radical Esprit de la révolution et de la constitution de France (1791) and was elected to the National Convention in 1792. A close associate of Maximilien Robespierre and a member of the Committee of Public Safety, he was elected president of the Convention in 1793 and sponsored the Ventôse (March) Decrees, which confiscated property of the Revolution's enemies and redistributed it to the poor. He led the victorious attack against the Austrians at Fleurus (in modern Belgium). A fanatical leader of the Reign of Terror, he was arrested in the Thermidorian Reaction and guillotined.

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orig. Louis Dearborn LaMoore

(born March 22, 1908, Jamestown, N.D., U.S.—died June 10, 1988, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. author of westerns. He left school at age 15 and traveled the world before beginning his writing career in the 1940s. He used pseudonyms, including Tex Burns and Jim Mayo, until Hondo (1953) became a successful film. His more than 100 works, mostly formula westerns that convincingly portray frontier life, have sold 200 million copies in 20 languages, and more than 30—including Kilkenny (1954), The Burning Hills (1956), Guns of the Timberland (1955), and How the West Was Won (1963)—were the basis of films.

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(born June 11, 1876, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 5, 1960, Paris, Fr.) U.S. anthropologist. Trained under Franz Boas (Ph.D., 1901), he later taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Kroeber's career nearly coincided with the emergence of academic, professionalized anthropology in the U.S. and contributed significantly to its development. He made valuable contributions to American Indian ethnology, New World archaeology, and the study of linguistics, folklore, kinship, and culture. His most influential books are considered to be Anthropology (1923) and The Nature of Culture (1952). His daughter, Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929), was a noted science fiction and fantasy writer.

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in full Joseph Louis Barrow

Joe Louis, 1946.

(born May 13, 1914, Lafayette, Ala., U.S.—died April 12, 1981, Las Vegas, Nev.) U.S. boxer. Louis was born into a sharecropper's family and only began boxing after the family moved to Detroit. He won the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union h1 in 1934 and turned professional that year. During his career he defeated six previous or subsequent heavyweight champions: Primo Carnera, Max Baer, Jack Sharkey, James J. Braddock, Max Schmeling, and Jersey Joe Walcott. Nicknamed “the Brown Bomber,” Louis gained the world heavyweight championship by defeating Braddock in 1937 and held the h1 until 1949. Two of Louis's most famous bouts, those with the German boxer Max Schmeling, were invested with nationalist and racial implications, as Schmeling was seen, unfairly, as the embodiment of Aryanism and the Nazi party. Louis lost to Schmeling in 1936 but defeated him in one round in 1938, causing much jubilation among Americans, and especially African Americans. He successfully defended his h1 25 times (21 by knockout) before retiring in 1949. His service in the U.S. Army during World War II no doubt prevented him from defending his h1 many more times. He made unsuccessful comeback attempts against Ezzard Charles in 1950 and Rocky Marciano in 1951.

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(born Jan. 7, 1922, Marseille, France—died May 20, 2000, Paris) French flutist. From 1947 he appeared widely in chamber music and solo recitals. In the 1950s he founded his own chamber groups, while also playing in the pit at the Paris Opéra (1956–62). Works were written for him by Francis Poulenc and others. His sweetness of tone and virtuosity in a largely Baroque repertoire, as evidenced on many admired recordings, made him the first flutist to attain international stardom.

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(born Sept. 8, 1910, Le Vésinet, France—died Jan. 22, 1994, Paris) French actor and director. He made his acting debut in Paris (1931) and joined the Comédie-Française (1940–46) as an actor and director. He and his wife, Madeleine Renaud, formed their own company (1946–58) at the Théâtre Marigny. There they performed a mixture of French and foreign classics and modern plays that helped revive French theatre after World War II. He was appointed director of the Théâtre de France (1959–68) and later directed at several other Paris theatres (1972–81). He appeared in more than 20 films and was best known for his role in The Children of Paradise (1945).

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Jacques-Louis David, self-portrait, oil painting, 1794; in the Louvre, Paris

(born Aug. 30, 1748, Paris, France—died Dec. 29, 1825, Brussels) French painter. At 18 he entered the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1775 he went to Rome and became a proponent of the Neoclassical style, but also studied the work of such 17th-century painters as Nicolas Poussin and Caravaggio. His work came to epitomize the late 18th-century Neoclassical reaction against the ornate Rococo style. Among his subjects were classical, historical, and mythological themes; he was also a great portraitist. He became the unchallenged painter of the French Revolution, and later was appointed official portraitist to Napoleon. He was also a founding member of the new Institut de France, which replaced the Royal Academy, and produced commemorative medals and other revolutionary propaganda. Among his masterpieces is The Death of Marat (1793), an expression of universal tragedy as well as a portrayal of a key event of the French Revolution. His influence on European art was pervasive; his pupils included Antoine-Jean Gros and J.-A.-D. Ingres.

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H.L. Mencken.

(born Sept. 12, 1880, Baltimore, Md., U.S.—died Jan. 29, 1956, Baltimore) U.S. controversialist, humorous journalist, and critic. Mencken worked on the staff of the Baltimore Sun for much of his life. With George Jean Nathan (1882–1958), he coedited The Smart Set (1914–23) and cofounded and edited (1924–33) the American Mercury, both important literary magazines. Probably the most influential U.S. literary critic in the 1920s, he often used criticism to jeer at the nation's social and cultural weaknesses. Prejudices (1919–27) collects many of his reviews and essays. In The American Language (1919; supplements 1945, 1948) he brought together American expressions and idioms; by the time of his death he was perhaps the leading authority on the language of the U.S.

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(born Sept. 16, 1950, Keyser, W.Va., U.S.) U.S. critic and scholar. Gates attended Yale University and the University of Cambridge. He has chaired Harvard University's department of Afro-American Studies for many years. In such works as Figures in Black (1987) and The Signifying Monkey (1988) he has used the term signifyin' to represent a practice that can link African and African American literary histories; his other books include Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man (1998). He has edited many anthologies, including Reading Black, Reading Feminist (1990) and the Norton Anthology of African American Writers (1997), and has restored and edited many lost works by black writers. He writes frequently to a general public, notably in The New Yorker, and he wrote the television series Wonders of the African World (1999).

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byname of Henry Louis Aaron

Hank Aaron.

(born Feb. 5, 1934, Mobile, Ala., U.S.) U.S. baseball player, one of the greatest in professional baseball. After playing briefly in the Negro leagues and then in the minor leagues, Aaron was moved up to the majors as an outfielder with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954. By the time the Braves moved to Atlanta, Ga., in 1965, Aaron had hit 398 home runs; in 1974 he hit his 715th, breaking Babe Ruth's record. He played his final two seasons (1975–76) with the Milwaukee Brewers. Aaron's records for extra-base hits (1,477) and runs batted in (2,297) remain unbroken, and only Ty Cobb and Pete Rose exceed him in career hits (3,771). Aaron's home run record (755) was broken by Barry Bonds in 2007. Aaron is renowned as one of the greatest hitters of all time.

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Henri Bergson, 1928.

(born Oct. 15, 1859, Paris, France—died Jan. 4, 1941, Paris) French philosopher. In Creative Evolution (1907), he argued that evolution, which he accepted as scientific fact, is not mechanistic but driven by an élan vital (“vital impulse”). He was the first to elaborate a process philosophy, rejecting static values and embracing dynamic values such as motion, change, and evolution. His writing style has been widely admired for its grace and lucidity; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. Very popular in his time, he remains influential in France.

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(born May 12, 1626, Ath, Belg.—died after 1701, Rome?, Italy) French missionary and explorer. A Franciscan, he traveled to Canada in 1675 with La Salle. They explored the Great Lakes region, founding Fort Crèvecoeur (near modern Peoria, Ill.) in 1680. When La Salle returned for supplies, Hennepin and others explored the upper Mississippi River. They were captured by Sioux Indians and taken to a site Hennepin named the Falls of St. Anthony (later Minneapolis); after four months they were rescued by Daniel DuLhut. Hennepin returned to France in 1682 and wrote an account of his journeys.

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(born Jan. 11, 1924, Dijon, Fr.) French-born U.S. physiologist. He and his colleagues discovered, isolated, and synthesized hypothalamic hormones that regulate thyroid activity, cause the pituitary to release growth hormone, and regulate the activities of the pituitary and the pancreas. He shared a 1977 Nobel Prize with Andrew V. Schally and Rosalyn Yalow. Guillemin is also known for his discovery of endorphins.

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(born May 8, 1829, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died Dec. 18, 1869, Rio de Janeiro, Braz.) U.S. composer and pianist. He was exposed early to the music of New Orleans's Caribbean and Latin American population. Sent to France at age 13 to study music, he quickly became known throughout Europe as a piano virtuoso and a composer of exotic piano works. He returned in 1853 and toured the U.S., West Indies, and South America. Though he wrote operas and symphonies, he is known for his more than 200 piano pieces, including La Bamboula, Le Bananier, Le Banjo, L'Union, and The Dying Poet. Gottschalk was the first American pianist to achieve international recognition and the first American composer to employ Latin American and Creole folk themes and rhythms.

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(born Sept. 16, 1950, Keyser, W.Va., U.S.) U.S. critic and scholar. Gates attended Yale University and the University of Cambridge. He has chaired Harvard University's department of Afro-American Studies for many years. In such works as Figures in Black (1987) and The Signifying Monkey (1988) he has used the term signifyin' to represent a practice that can link African and African American literary histories; his other books include Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man (1998). He has edited many anthologies, including Reading Black, Reading Feminist (1990) and the Norton Anthology of African American Writers (1997), and has restored and edited many lost works by black writers. He writes frequently to a general public, notably in The New Yorker, and he wrote the television series Wonders of the African World (1999).

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(born May 22, 1622, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France—died Nov. 28, 1698, Quebec, New France) French courtier and governor of New France (1672–82, 1689–98). Despite a record of misgovernment, he encouraged exploration that led to the expansion of the French empire in Canada. He established fur-trading posts that brought him into conflict with the Montreal fur traders and later expanded the posts west. He engaged in disputes with the officials and clergy of New France. The Iroquois Confederacy, which had remained on good terms with the French until 1675, turned against the French, and the colony was left defenseless. Louis XIV recalled Frontenac in 1682. Reappointed when the French and Indian War started (1689), he distinguished himself by repulsing British attacks on Quebec.

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orig. Louis Eugene Walcott

(born May 11, 1933, Bronx, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. religious leader. He joined the Nation of Islam in 1955, and for a time he assisted Malcolm X in Boston. After Malcolm converted to Sunni Islam, Farrakhan denounced him and replaced him as minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Farrakhan later expressed regret at having contributed to the climate of antagonism that preceded Malcolm's assassination in 1965. When Warith Deen Mohammed, Elijah Muhammad's successor as leader of the Nation of Islam, gradually began integrating the organization into the orthodox Muslim community, Farrakhan broke away and formed his own organization, also called the Nation of Islam (1978). A compelling orator whose rhetoric often descended into overt anti-Semitism, Farrakhan was nonetheless effective in encouraging African American self-reliance and unity. He was the main organizer of the Million Man March on Washington, D.C., in 1995. In 2000 Farrakhan and Mohammed recognized each other as fellow Muslims, and Farrakhan subsequently moved his group closer to orthodox Islam and moderated his racial remarks.

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(born Dec. 10, 1851, Adams Center, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 26, 1931, Lake Placid, Fla.) U.S. librarian. He graduated from Amherst College in 1874, whereupon he became acting librarian there. In 1876 he published A Classification and Subject Index for Cataloguing and Arranging the Books and Pamphlets of a Library, in which he outlined the Dewey Decimal Classification system. He was one of the founders of the American Library Association and of Library Journal (both 1876). He set up the School of Library Economy, the first U.S. institution for training librarians. He also reorganized the N.Y. State Library (1889–1906) and established the system of traveling libraries and picture collections. A cofounder of the Spelling Reform Assn., he respelled his own name.

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Jacques-Louis David, self-portrait, oil painting, 1794; in the Louvre, Paris

(born Aug. 30, 1748, Paris, France—died Dec. 29, 1825, Brussels) French painter. At 18 he entered the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1775 he went to Rome and became a proponent of the Neoclassical style, but also studied the work of such 17th-century painters as Nicolas Poussin and Caravaggio. His work came to epitomize the late 18th-century Neoclassical reaction against the ornate Rococo style. Among his subjects were classical, historical, and mythological themes; he was also a great portraitist. He became the unchallenged painter of the French Revolution, and later was appointed official portraitist to Napoleon. He was also a founding member of the new Institut de France, which replaced the Royal Academy, and produced commemorative medals and other revolutionary propaganda. Among his masterpieces is The Death of Marat (1793), an expression of universal tragedy as well as a portrayal of a key event of the French Revolution. His influence on European art was pervasive; his pupils included Antoine-Jean Gros and J.-A.-D. Ingres.

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(born Aug. 6, 1868, Villeneuve-sur-Fère, France—died Feb. 23, 1955, Paris) French poet, playwright, and diplomat. He converted to Catholicism at age 18. His brilliant diplomatic career began in 1892, and he eventually served as ambassador to Japan (1921–27) and the U.S. (1927–33). At the same time he pursued a literary career, expressing in poetry and drama his conception of the grand design of creation. He reached his largest audience through plays such as Break of Noon (1906), The Hostage (1911), Tidings Brought to Mary (1912), and his masterpiece, The Satin Slipper (1929); recurring themes in these works are human and divine love and the search for salvation. He wrote the librettos for Darius Milhaud's opera Christopher Columbus (1930) and Arthur Honegger's oratorio Joan of Arc (1938). His best-known poetic work is the confessional Five Great Odes (1910).

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Louis Brandeis.

(born Nov. 13, 1856, Louisville, Ky., U.S.—died Oct. 5, 1941, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. The son of Bohemian Jewish immigrants, he attended schools in Kentucky and Germany before obtaining his law degree from Harvard (1877). As a lawyer in Boston (1877–1916), he was known as “the people's attorney” for his defense of the constitutionality of several state hours-and-wages laws, his devising of a savings-bank life-insurance plan for working people, and his efforts to strengthen the government's antitrust power. His work influenced passage in 1914 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. He also developed what came to be called the “Brandeis brief,” in which economic and sociological data, historical material, and expert opinion are marshaled to support a legal argument. Appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States (1916), he was noted for his devotion to freedom of speech. Many of his minority opinions, in which he was often aligned with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., later were accepted by the court in the New Deal era. His appointment as the first Jewish justice was vigorously opposed by some business interests and anti-Semitic groups. He served until 1939. Brandeis University is named for him.

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Louis Braille, portrait bust by an unknown artist.

(born Jan. 4, 1809, Coupvray, near Paris, France—died Jan. 6, 1852, Paris) French educator who developed the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind. Himself blinded at the age of three in an accident, he went to Paris in 1819 to attend the National Institute for Blind Children, and from 1826 he taught there. Braille adapted a method created by Charles Barbier to develop his own simplified system.

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(born Sept. 27, 1862, near Greytown, Natal [South Africa]—died Aug. 27, 1919, Pretoria, Transvaal) First prime minister (1910–19) of the Union of South Africa. Botha was elected to the South African Republic's parliament in 1897, where he sided with moderates against Pres. Paul Kruger's hostile policy toward Uitlanders (non-Boer, mostly English, settlers). In the South African War he commanded southern forces besieging Ladysmith and then tried unsuccessfully to defend the Transvaal. As prime minister he sought earnestly to appease the English-speaking population and was bitterly attacked by Afrikaner nationalists. In World War I he acceded to British requests to conquer German South West Africa (Namibia).

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Henri Bergson, 1928.

(born Oct. 15, 1859, Paris, France—died Jan. 4, 1941, Paris) French philosopher. In Creative Evolution (1907), he argued that evolution, which he accepted as scientific fact, is not mechanistic but driven by an élan vital (“vital impulse”). He was the first to elaborate a process philosophy, rejecting static values and embracing dynamic values such as motion, change, and evolution. His writing style has been widely admired for its grace and lucidity; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927. Very popular in his time, he remains influential in France.

Learn more about Bergson, Henri (-Louis) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 8, 1910, Le Vésinet, France—died Jan. 22, 1994, Paris) French actor and director. He made his acting debut in Paris (1931) and joined the Comédie-Française (1940–46) as an actor and director. He and his wife, Madeleine Renaud, formed their own company (1946–58) at the Théâtre Marigny. There they performed a mixture of French and foreign classics and modern plays that helped revive French theatre after World War II. He was appointed director of the Théâtre de France (1959–68) and later directed at several other Paris theatres (1972–81). He appeared in more than 20 films and was best known for his role in The Children of Paradise (1945).

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orig. Louis Andrieux

(born Oct. 3, 1897, Paris, Fr.—died Dec. 24, 1982, Paris) French poet, novelist, and essayist. He was introduced by André Breton into avant-garde circles, and the two cofounded the Surrealist review Littérature in 1919. From 1927 he was increasingly a political activist and spokesman for communism, which resulted in a break with the Surrealists. Among his works are the novel tetralogy Le Monde réel, 4 vol. (1933–44), describing the class struggle of the proletariat; the huge novel Les Communistes, 6 vol. (1949–51); novels of veiled autobiography; and volumes of poems expressing patriotism and love for his wife. He was editor of the communist weekly of arts and literature, Les Lettres françaises, 1953–72.

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(born June 11, 1876, Hoboken, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 5, 1960, Paris, Fr.) U.S. anthropologist. Trained under Franz Boas (Ph.D., 1901), he later taught at the University of California at Berkeley. Kroeber's career nearly coincided with the emergence of academic, professionalized anthropology in the U.S. and contributed significantly to its development. He made valuable contributions to American Indian ethnology, New World archaeology, and the study of linguistics, folklore, kinship, and culture. His most influential books are considered to be Anthropology (1923) and The Nature of Culture (1952). His daughter, Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929), was a noted science fiction and fantasy writer.

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Louis I (Ludovico I or Lodovico I in Italian) (Geneva, February 21, 1402/1413 – Lyon, January 29 1465) was Duke of Savoy from 1440 until his death.

He married at Chambery on November 1 1433 or February 12 1434 Anne of Cyprus (ca September 24 1415 (or 1419) – Geneva, November 11 1462) (although Anne was born on September 24, the year she was born is uncertain, might be 1415 or 1419), a Princess and an heiress of Cyprus and Jerusalem (she was the secondary heiress all her lifetime, as her niece Queen Charlotte of Cyprus outlived her) and a daughter of King Janus of Cyprus. They had 19 children, 5 of whom died young:

  1. Amadeus (1435-1472)
  2. Maria (1436-1437)
  3. Louis of Savoy, Count of Geneva (1436-1482), married Annabella of Scotland, married Queen Charlotte of Cyprus.
  4. Philip (1438-1497)
  5. Margaret (1439-1483), married in December 1458 Giovanni IV Paleologo (1413–1464), Marquis of Montferrat.
  6. Giano, Count of Geneva (1440-1491)
  7. Pietro, Bishop of Geneva (1440-1458)
  8. Janus, Count of Faucigny, Governor of Nice. (1440-1491)
  9. Charlotte (1441-1483), married Louis XI of France
  10. Aimone (1442-1443)
  11. Giacomo d. 1445
  12. Agnese (1445-1508)
  13. Giovanni Ludovico, Bishop of Geneva (1447-1482)
  14. Maria (1448-1475)
  15. Bona (1449-1503), married Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan
  16. Giacomo, Count of Romont, lord of Vaud (1450-1486)
  17. Anne (1452-1452)
  18. Francesco, Archbishop of Auch and Bishop of Geneva (1454-1490)
  19. Giovanna d. young.

In 1453 he received, from Margaret de Charny, the Shroud of Turin, which would be property of the house of Savoy until 1946, at the end of the Kingdom of Italy. The Shroud of Turin was bequeathed to the Holy See in 1983. He may also have been one of Leonardo da Vinci's later patrons.

Notes

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