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Diamond Jim Brady
Diamond Jim Brady (James Buchanan Brady), 1856-1917, American financier and philanthropist, b. New York City. He was a bellboy and messenger and then worked for the New York Central RR in various capacities. He later was employed by a railroad supply company, and his selling ability rapidly brought...
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Montmartre
Montmartre [Fr.,=hill of the martyrs], hill in Paris, on the right bank of the Seine River. The highest point of Paris, it is topped by the famous Church of Sacré-Cœur . Parts of the ancient quarter on its slopes were long a favorite residence of the bohemian world. Until the 20th cen...
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Louisiana
Louisiana , state in the S central United States. It is bounded by Mississippi, with the Mississippi R. forming about half of the border (E), the Gulf of Mexico (S), Texas (W), and Arkansas (N).
Facts and Figures
Area, 48,523 sq mi (125,675 sq km). Pop. (2000) 4,468,976, a 5.9% increas...
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vampire
vampire in folklore, animated corpse that sucks the blood of humans. Belief in vampires has existed from the earliest times and has given rise to an amalgam of legends and superstitions. They were most commonly thought of as spirits or demons that left their graves at night to seek and enslave thei...
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vampire bat
vampire bat name for the blood-drinking bats of the family Desmodontidae, found in the New World tropics. Vampire bats feed exclusively on the blood of living animals and are thus the only true parasites among mammals. There are three species ranging from Argentina to N Mexico. They are small (ab...
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Bram Stoker
Bram Stoker (Abraham Stoker), 1847-1912, English novelist, b. Ireland. He is best remembered as the author of Dracula (1897), a horror story recounting the adventures of the vampire Count Dracula. The fame of the leading character was furthered by popular stage and film adaptations of the novel. ...
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lycanthropy
lycanthropy , in folklore, assumption by a human of the appearance and characteristics of an animal. Ancient belief in lycanthropy was widespread, and it still exists in parts of the world. Certain African tribes have their "leopardmen" and the like, and literatures all over the world have tales...
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Dracula
Dracula, a novel by B. Stoker, published 1897, the most famous of all tales of vampirism.The story is told through the diaries of a young solicitor, Jonathan Harker, his fiancée Mina, her friend Lucy Westenra, and Dr John Seward, the superintendent of a large lunatic asylum at Purfleet, in Es...
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Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola , 1939-, American film director, b. Detroit. Coppola began his career directing low-budget films and working on screenplays for other directors. He won his first Academy Award for Patton (1970) and firmly established his reputation with The Godfather (1972; Academy Award). I...
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monsters and imaginary beasts
monsters and imaginary beasts The mythologies and legends of ancient and modern cultures teem with an enormous variety of monsters and imaginary beasts. A great number of these are composites of different existing animals and of human beings and animals. Among the animal composites are the Babyloni...
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