Richardson, Samuel (baptized Aug. 19, 1689, Mackworth, near Derby, Derbyshire, Eng.—d. July 4, 1761, Parson’s Green, near London) English novelist. After moving with his family to London at age 10, Rich¬ ardson was apprenticed to a printer before setting up in business for him¬ self in 1721. He soon became quite prosperous. In the 1730s he began to edit and write pamphlets, and he eventually hit on the idea of writing a book using a series of letters on the same subject. His major novels were the epistolary novel Pamela (1740), about a servant who avoids seduction and is rewarded by marriage; and his huge masterpiece, Clarissa, 1 vol. (1747-48), a tragedy with multiple narrators that develops a profoundly suggestive interplay of opposed voices. The History of Sir Charles Gran- dison (1753-54), which blends moral discussion and a comic ending, influenced later writers, especially Jane Austen.
Richardson, Tony orig. Cecil Antonio Richardson (b. June 5, 1928, Shipley, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Nov. 14, 1991, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) British director. With the English Stage Co. he won acclaim with Jofin Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956), and he led the company in reinterpreting classic plays and in productions of Eugene Ionesco and Sam¬ uel Beckett. His experimental productions stimulated a renewal of creative vitality on the British stage during the 1950s. He directed The Entertainer (1958) and A Taste of Honey {I960) on Broadway. He and Osborne formed a film company (1958), which pro¬ duced screen versions of Osborne’s plays as well as The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) and Tom Jones (1963, Academy Award).
His later films include The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Ned Kelly (1970), and Blue Sky (1993). He was married to Vanessa Redgrave; their daughters, Miranda and Joely Rich¬ ardson, are both film actresses.
Richelieu Vri-shs-JuA French \re- sh3-'lyoe\, Armand-Jean du Plessis, cardinal and duke
de (b. Sept. 9, 1585, Richelieu, Poitou, France—d. Dec. 4, 1642, Paris) French statesman and chief minister to Louis XIII. Born to a minor noble family, he was ordained a priest in 1607 and became bishop of Lutjon.
Cardinal de Richelieu, detail of a por¬ trait by Philippe de Champaigne; in the Louvre, Paris.
GIRAUDON/ART RESOURCE, NEW YORK
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1620 I Richelieu River ► Ricketts
As the first bishop in France to implement reforms decreed by the Council of Trent, he brought order to a diocese ruined by the Wars of Religion. In 1614 he was elected a deputy of the clergy in the Estates-General, where he was noted as a conciliatory force. He became an adviser to Marie de Medi- cis in 1616 and later councillor to her son, Louis XIII. Named a cardinal in 1622, he served as chief minister from 1624 and became the controlling influence in France’s policies. He established royal absolutism in France by suppressing the political power of the Huguenots and reducing the influ¬ ence of the nobles. In foreign policy, he sought to weaken Habsburg control of Europe and involved France in the Thirty Years' War. Devious and bril¬ liant, he increased the power of the Bourbon dynasty and established orderly government in France. He also founded the Academie Francaise and rebuilt the Sorbonne.
Richelieu River Vri-sho-.liA River, southern Quebec. It is 210 mi (338 km) long and flows north from Lake Champlain to join the St. Lawrence River at Sorel. Explored in 1609 by Samuel de Champlain, it was used by the warring French and English colonists and later by commercial loggers and fishermen. A canal enables shallow-draft vessels to navigate between Montreal and New York City via the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, Lake Champlain, and the Hudson River.
Richler, Mordecai (b. Jan. 27, 1931, Montreal, Que., Can.—d. July 3, 2001, Montreal) Canadian novelist. He grew up in a Jewish working- class neighbourhood in which many of his novels are set. In 1951-52 he lived in Paris, where he was influenced by existentialism; he later lived in England. The Apprenticeship ofDuddy Kravitz (1959) is a bawdy account of a Jewish boy in Montreal and his transformation into a ruthless busi¬ nessman. His later novels include Joshua Then and Now (1980) and Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989). He also wrote children’s books fea¬ turing the character Jacob Two-Two.
Richmond City (pop., 2000: 197,790), capital of Virginia, U.S. Located in the east-central part of the state, on the James River, Richmond was established as a trading post in 1637 and incorporated as a town in 1742. It became the state capital in 1779 and played an important role in the American Revolution. During the American Civil War it was the capital of the Confederate States of America. It was taken by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, and much of the business district was burned. It is now a major tobacco market and commercial and government centre; its universities include the University of Richmond (founded 1830) and Virginia Com¬ monwealth University (1838).
Richter Vrik-torN, Conrad (Michael) (b. Oct. 13, 1890, Pine Grove, Pa., U.S.—d. Oct. 30, 1968, Pottsville, Pa.) U.S. short-story writer and novelist. He began as an editor and reporter and founded a juvenile maga¬ zine before moving to New Mexico in 1928. He became fascinated with U.S. history and spent years researching frontier life. He is best known for The Sea of Grass (1936), an epic on the settling of the Southwest, and _ for his trilogy of pioneer life. The Trees (1940), The Fields (1946), and
The Town (1950, Pulitzer Prize). The Waters of Kronos (1960, National Book Award) is an autobiographical novel.
£ Richter Vrik-tari, Curt Paul (b. Feb. 20, 1894, Denver, Colo., U.S.—d.
h] Dec. 21, 1988, Baltimore, Md.) U.S. biologist. He received a Ph.D. from
Johns Hopkins University. He introduced the concept of the biological ■■ clock in a 1927 paper on animals’ internal cycles (see biological rhythm).
He theorized that ancient peoples’ discovery of fire changed their habits, resulting in brain-structure changes that increased their ability to learn and communicate. He helped discover relationships between behaviour and biochemistry governing sleep, stress, and disease onset.
Richter, Gerhard (b. Feb. 9, 1932, Dresden, Ger.) German painter. Beginning in the early 1960s, Richter created paintings that were faithful enlargements of black-and-white photographs, often family snapshots and landscapes; he would continue this pursuit throughout his career. In the 1970s he also created monochromatic paintings, which explored the act of painting at its purest, while by the 1980s he experimented with an expressionistic, gestural style. Notably, Richter never allied himself to one movement—he has been alternatively described as a Pop artist, Minimal¬ ist, and postmodernist. Instead, he has consistently carried out a rigorous, personal exploration of the process of painting.
Richter, Sviatoslav (Teofilovich) (b. March 20, 1915, Zhitomir, Ukraine, Russian Empire—d. Aug. 1, 1997, Moscow, Russia) Ukrainian pianist of German descent. He became accompanist to the Odessa Opera at age 15 and began conducting there at 18. In 1949, two years after he
graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, he won the Stalin Prize. He toured Europe, China, Japan, and the U.S., becoming legendary for the powerful technique and fiery energy in his solo performances. Highly regarded as an accompanist and chamber player as well, he made cel¬ ebrated trio recordings with Mstislav Rostropovich and David Oistrakh.
Richter scale Vrik-toiA Widely used measure of the magnitude of an earthquake, introduced in 1935 by U.S. seismologists Beno Gutenberg (1889-1960) and Charles F. Richter (1900-1985). The scale is logarith¬ mic, so that each increase of one unit represents a 10-fold increase in magnitude (amplitude of seismic waves). The magnitude is then translated into energy released. Earthquakes that are fainter than the ones originally chosen to define magnitude zero are accommodated by using negative numbers. Though the scale has no theoretical upper limit, the most severe earthquakes have not exceeded a scale value of 9. The moment magni¬ tude scale, in use since 1993, is more accurate for large earthquakes; it takes into account the amount of fault slippage, the size of the area rup¬ tured, and the nature of the materials that faulted.